Anita Harding

Anita Elizabeth Harding (17 September 1952 – 11 September 1995) was an Irish-British neurologist, and Professor of Clinical Neurology at the Institute of Neurology of the University of London. She is known for the discovery with Ian Holt and John Morgan-Hughes of the "first identification of a mitochondrial DNA mutation in human disease and the concept of tissue heteroplasmy of mutant mitochondrial DNA", published in Nature in 1986. In 1985 she established the first neurogenetics research group in the United Kingdom at the UCL Institute of Neurology.

Biography Born in Ireland, Harding was educated at the King Edward VI High School for Girls and the Royal Free Hospital Medical School, where she qualified in 1975. She married neurology professor P.K. Thomas two years later, and trained as a neurologist. A person with great charm and wit, she referred to herself as the "wobbly doctor". In 2019, the journal Nature named their custom typeface in her honor.

Work Harding made several significant contributions in the field of inherited neurologic disorders. Her major achievements were: Classification of the peripheral neuropathies and hereditary ataxias, the first identification of a mitochondrial DNA mutation in human disease (in Kearns–Sayre syndrome) Identification of trinucleotide repeats in degenerative neurologic diseases (e.g. Huntington's disease). She also worked extensively on the population genetics of disorders with ethnic distribution.