Lefkos Middleton, MD, FRCP, holds a chair of neurology, neuroepidemiology and ageing research at the School of Public Health, Imperial College London. His initial neurogenetics research led to the identification and mapping of the Ataxia with Vitamin E Deficiency, rare forms of hereditary motor neuropathy and a congenital myasthenia syndrome due to mutations in acetylcholine receptor ε-subunit gene. In 1999, he joined GSK R&D and led Translational Medicine and Genetics: a new function combining genetics, imaging, biomarkers and experimental medicine. His GSK group developed, in collaboration with 180 academic centres, large cohorts (>92,000 cases and controls) in several “complex diseases,” including Parkinson’s disease (PD).

He is the principal investigator of the Parkinson’s UK Brain Bank and conducts research in gene–environment interactions in PD. He leads the Chariot register [a cohort of 20,000 healthy volunteers for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) prevention studies] and observational studies on the natural history of the early stages of AD and is involved in a clinical prevention trial for AD.