James Ironside

James Wilson Ironside (born 1954) is a British neuropathologist and Emeritus Professor of Clinical Neuropathology at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known for his study of prion diseases and his identification of variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD) in 1996, a disease which is widely considered to be the human form of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

Ironside was the director of the National CJD Research & Surveillance Unit (NCJDSU) from 2002 to 2004, and served as inaugural Director of the MRC Network of UK Brain Banks. His research has largely focused on the diagnosis and transmission of prion diseases, particularly the risks associated with blood transfusion.

Early life and education Ironside was born in India, and lived in Calcutta until the age of five, where his father worked in jute manufacturing. He then returned to his father's native Dundee, where he went to school, and later studied medicine at the University of Dundee. He was the first member of his family to go to university, and “was fortunate enough to get a grant", which he supplemented by playing the organ pipes at the local crematorium. He subsequently specialised in neuropathology, conducting research into neurodegenerative disorders.

Career

Identification of variant CJD In 1990, he joined the National CJD Research and Surveillance Unit (NCJDSU) in Edinburgh, where he worked alongside Professor Robert Will. Ironside researched which identified a novel form of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD). In 1996, he and his colleagues published findings describing a distinct variant of the disease that affected younger patients and displayed unique neuropathological features, including "florid" amyloid plaques in the brain. This condition, which he named variant CJD (vCJD) or "Will-Ironside syndrome," was causally linked to the consumption of beef contaminated with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

Ironside told the BSE inquiry, conducted by Lord Phillips from 1998 to 2000, that vCJD was most likely caused by eating brain, spinal or offal tissues from cattle infected with the BSE agent. He later accused the meat industry of obstructing efforts to find out if low-cost mechanically recovered meat went into food items served in school canteens during the 1980s, a theory which suggests why vCJD is generally seen in younger patients.

In 2004, it was reported that Ironside had a "bitter feud" with John Collinge at the Institute of Neurology, which led to both researchers arguing over access to blood and brain tissue samples.

Transmission studies Ironside's subsequent research focused on the transmissibility of vCJD. Unlike sporadic CJD, the infectious prion protein in vCJD is detectable in lymphoid tissues such as the tonsils, spleen, and appendix. This finding led to significant public health concerns regarding the potential for secondary transmission via blood transfusions. In 2009, he was appointed Director of the UK Brain Banks Network, a Medical Research Council initiative set up to improve access to brain tissue for neuroscience research.

Ironside is currently Emeritus Professor at the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh. 2011: Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE).

Selected publications Professor Ironside has authored over 570 research items. These publications include: