Andrew Lees (neurologist)

Andrew Lees

Lees during a talk in 2010
Born

Andrew John Lees
1947 (age 68–69)


Merseyside, England

Known for Creating the most widely used criteria for the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease

Medical career

Profession Physician

Andrew John Lees (born in 1947 on Merseyside, England) is Professor of Neurology at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London and University College London. In 2011 he was named as the world's most highly cited Parkinson's disease researcher.[1][2]

Career

Lees studied medicine at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel where he was awarded the Jonathan Hutchinson Prize for Clinical Medicine, and then trained as a neurologist at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris, University College Hospital and at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery[3] where he was appointed consultant neurologist at the age of 33.

Lees was director of the Reta Lila Weston Institute of Neurological Studies at University College London from 1998-2012,[4] an institution dedicated to research into neurodegenerative diseases. In 1987 he co-founded the Queen Square Brain Bank for Neurological Disorders (QSBB), which now houses the largest collection of Parkinson's brains in the world and is where he conducted the research that led to the Queen Square Brain Bank criteria for Parkinson's disease. From 2002 to 2012 he served as director of the Sara Koe PSP Research Centre funded by the PSP Association to conduct research into progressive supranuclear palsy.

He was responsible for the introduction of apomorphine to treat advanced complications of Parkinson's disease including L-dopa induced refractory off periods and dyskinesias.

Awards and achievements

In 2006 Lees received the American Academy of Neurology Movement Disorders Life Time Achievement Award for his outstanding achievements in the field of Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders.[5] In 2012 he was awarded the Dingebauer Prize by the German Society of Neurology for his outstanding achievement in the field of Movement Disorders.[6] In 2014 he was awarded the Jay Van Andel Award for outstanding research in Parkinson's disease.[7][8] This prize is awarded by the Van Andel Institute, which was created by Jay Van Andel, co-founder of Amway and a Parkinson’s disease patient.[9] In 2015 Lees was awarded the Association of British Neurologists Medal.[10]

He delivered various keynote lectures and memorial lectures worldwide including the UK,[11][12] Thailand, Budapest and Dublin.[13] Other achievements include: Council Member for the Academy of Medical Sciences, United Kingdom,[14] National Institute for Health Research Senior investigator,[15] Co-founder and past President of The Movement Disorder Society, Former Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal Movement Disorders, UK Government National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Guidleline Development Group for Parkinson's Disease (2006-2019),[16] Visiting Professor to the University of Liverpool, Visiting Professor to the Hospital Sao Rafaele, Salvador Brazil, Honorary overseas member of the Academia Nacional de Medicina, Brazil.[17]

Publications

Scientific articles

Lees is recognised as a highly cited neuroscientist on the Institute for Scientific Information "ISI Highly Cited Researchers" database with an h-index of 104[18] and is the world's most highly cited Parkinson's disease researcher with over 23,000 citations since 1985 and co-author of 8 citation classics.[1][2]

Media

In addition to his academic career Lees has written a book about the city of Liverpool[19] and the authorized biography of footballer Ray Kennedy.[20] Lees also served as medical advisor to Patient 39[21] the film adaptation of a William Boyd short story and has written about how both Conan Doyle and William Burroughs have influenced his career as a neurologist.[22][23]

Lees was a longstanding friend[24][25] of Oliver Sacks, who also trained at National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London and was acknowledged in the preface of Sacks books Awakenings,[26] a story about L-dopa treatment of parkinsonism which was made into a film starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams and The Island of the Colour Blind,[27] which deals with parkinsonism caused by Lytico-bodig disease.

In his memoir "Mentored by a Madman" Lees explains his career was influenced by Arthur Conan Doyle's character Sherlock Holmes and by the self-experimentation of William S. Burroughs, author of Naked Lunch.[28]

Books

References

  1. 1 2 Ponce, Francisco A.; Lozano, Andres M. (2011). "The most cited works in Parkinson's disease". Movement Disorders. 26 (3): 380–90. doi:10.1002/mds.23445. PMID 21462255.
  2. 1 2 Sorensen, Aaron A.; Weedon, David (2011). "Productivity and Impact of the Top 100 Cited Parkinson's Disease Investigators since 1985". Journal of Parkinson's Disease. 1 (1): 3–13. doi:10.3233/JPD-2011-10021.
  3. ↑ "NHS find a consultant". Archived from the original on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 6 October 2011.
  4. ↑ "Professor Andrew Lees, Emeritus Director". ucl.ac.uk. 2013. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  5. ↑ "Movement Disorders Research Award" (PDF).
  6. ↑ "Parkinson-Krankheit: Dingebauer-Preis für Professor Heinz Reichmann (Dresden) und Professor Andrew Lees (London)". Archived from the original on 27 September 2013.
  7. ↑ "Professor Lees receives Jay Van Andel Award for Outstanding Research in Parkinson's Disease". Archived from the original on 1 November 2014.
  8. ↑ "Jay Van Andel Award".
  9. ↑ "Jay Van Andel biography".
  10. ↑ "ABN Medal".
  11. ↑ "Lord Brain Memorial Lecture is launched in recognizing outstanding contribution to neuroscience".
  12. ↑ William Richard Gowers 1845-1915: Exploring the Victorian Brain.
  13. ↑ "Awards and congratulations,27 June 2012. Extracts from the Provost's newsletter.".
  14. ↑ "The Academy of Medical Sciences | Directory of Fellows". acmedsci.ac.uk. 2011. Archived from the original on 20 August 2011. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
  15. ↑ http://www.acnr.co.uk/may_june_09/ACNRMJ09_awards.pdf
  16. ↑ "PARKINSON'S DISEASE National clinical guideline for diagnosis and management in primary and secondary care." (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2013.
  17. ↑ "Jornal do Brasil - Ciência e Tecnologia - Andrew Lees fala de avanços no tratamento de Parkinson, no Rio". jb.com.br. 2013. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  18. ↑ "Highly Cited Researchers".
  19. ↑ "Hurricane Port".
  20. ↑ "Ray of Hope".
  21. ↑ "Patient 39".
  22. ↑ "Hanging out with the molecules".
  23. ↑ "Paging Dr. Sherlock Holmes: Please report to neurology".
  24. ↑ "One is always nearer by not keeping still".
  25. ↑ "Brain Matters" (PDF).
  26. ↑ Awakenings.
  27. ↑ The Island of the Colour Blind.
  28. ↑ "Mentored by a Madman: The William Burroughs Experiment".

External links

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