With more than 23,000 citations in the period between January 1985 to April 2008, Professor John Hardy (Reta Lila Weston Institute of Neurological Studies) has been confirmed as the most highly cited author on Alzheimer's disease research in the UK and 5th internationally, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. * Professor Hardy published a total of 351 articles on Alzheimer's disease, making him the ninth most prolific in that same period.
Professor Hardy's main line of investigation are tau proteins, which in patients with Alzheimer's accumulate in abnormal folds. Changes in tau proteins lead to the disintegration of microtubules in brain cells, which are significant to many cellular processes including mitosis and vesicular transport.
More widely, Professor Hardy's research interests include the genetic analysis of disease, in conditions such as Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders, and he is ranked 13th in the world in the field of Neuroscience & Behaviour, by Thompson Reuters Essential Science Indicators.
The citation study of the field of Alzheimer's disease was undertaken with the underlying goal of understanding its importance within the field of neurodegenerative diseases and subsequently within the greater realm of neuroscience research.
* Aaron A. Sorensen. Alzheimer's Disease Research: Scientific Productivity and impact of the top 100 investigators in the field. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease 16 (2009) 451-465 DOI 10.3233/JAD-2009-1046