Edward Wild, also known as Ed Wild, is a British

neurologist Neurology (from , "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous system, which comprises the brain, the ...

and

neuroscientist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist specializing in neuroscience that deals with the anatomy and function of neurons, Biological neural network, neural circuits, and glia, and their Behavior, behavioral, biological, and psycholo ...

in the field of

Huntington's disease Huntington's disease (HD), also known as Huntington's chorea, is an incurable neurodegenerative disease that is mostly Genetic disorder#Autosomal dominant, inherited. It typically presents as a triad of progressive psychiatric, cognitive, and ...

and an advocate for scientific outreach to the public. He co-founded the Huntington's research news platform HDBuzz in 2010. He is a professor of neurology at

UCL Institute of Neurology The UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology is an institute within the Faculty of Brain Sciences of University College London (UCL) and is located in London, United Kingdom. Together with the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, a ...

and is an associate director of the UCL Huntington's Disease Centre. He is also a

consultant A consultant (from "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice or services in an area of specialization (generally to medium or large-size corporations). Cons ...

neurologist at the

National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (informally the National Hospital or Queen Square) is a neurological hospital in Queen Square, London. It is part of the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. It was the f ...

in London.

Career

Wild studied medicine at

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 250 graduate students. The c ...

. In his early career, he studied and published on the neurological phenomenon of

déjà vu ''Déjà vu'' ( , ; "already seen") is the phenomenon of feeling like one has lived through the present situation in the past.Schnider, Armin. (2008). ''The Confabulating Mind: How the Brain Creates Reality''. Oxford University Press. pp. 167–1 ...

. He undertook a PhD, supervised by professor

Sarah Tabrizi Sarah Joanna Tabrizi FMedSci Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS is a British neurology, neurologist and neuroscientist in the field of neurodegeneration, particularly Huntington's disease. She is a Professor and Joint Head of the Department of Neu ...

, at the

, Queen Square, London, during which he published research on

biomarker In biomedical contexts, a biomarker, or biological marker, is a measurable indicator of some biological state or condition. Biomarkers are often measured and evaluated using blood, urine, or soft tissues to examine normal biological processes, ...

s for Huntington's disease using

magnetic resonance imaging Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to generate pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes inside the body. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and ...

measures of

brain atrophy Cerebral atrophy is a common feature of many of the diseases that affect the brain. Atrophy of any tissue means a decrement in the size of the cell, which can be due to progressive loss of cytoplasmic proteins. In brain tissue, atrophy describes ...

and biochemical analysis of blood. Wild and Tabrizi continue to work together at the UCL Huntington's Disease Centre. Wild and colleagues described a novel pathogenic pathway of

immune In biology, immunity is the state of being insusceptible or resistant to a noxious agent or process, especially a pathogen or infectious disease. Immunity may occur naturally or be produced by prior exposure or immunization. Innate and adaptive ...

activation in Huntington's which later became the basis of

clinical trial Clinical trials are prospective biomedical or behavioral research studies on human subject research, human participants designed to answer specific questions about biomedical or behavioral interventions, including new treatments (such as novel v ...

s of immune-targeted therapies. In 2015, he published the first successful detection and quantification of mutant

huntingtin Huntingtin (Htt) is the protein coded for in humans by the ''HTT'' gene, also known as the ''IT15'' ("interesting transcript 15") gene. Mutation, Mutated ''HTT'' is the cause of Huntington's disease (HD), and has been investigated for this role an ...

protein (the known cause of Huntington's) in human

cerebrospinal fluid Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is a clear, colorless Extracellular fluid#Transcellular fluid, transcellular body fluid found within the meninges, meningeal tissue that surrounds the vertebrate brain and spinal cord, and in the ventricular system, ven ...

, using a novel 'single-molecule counting'

immunoassay An immunoassay (IA) is a biochemical test that measures the presence or concentration of a macromolecule or a small molecule in a solution through the use of an antibody (usually) or an antigen (sometimes). The molecule detected by the immunoassay ...

. This finding was noted as a 'research highlight' by

Nature Reviews Neurology ''Nature Reviews Neurology'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Nature Portfolio. It was established in 2005 as ''Nature Clinical Practice Neurology'', but was renamed in April 2009. It covers research developments and cl ...

and won Wild the Huntington Study group 'Insight of the Year' award in 2015. He has also published novel genetic causes of 'phenocopy' syndromes that mimic Huntington's disease. Wild's research since 2017 has focused on the potential of neurofilament light and mutant huntingtin protein as biomarkers for Huntington's disease onset and progression. His work has shown that NFL has better prognostic value in Huntington's disease, but that mutant huntingtin might be a valuable marker for early and sensitive detection of change in clinical huntingtin-lowering trials. He was a senior investigator in the clinical programme studying the

antisense oligonucleotide Oligonucleotides are short DNA or RNA molecules, oligomers, that have a wide range of applications in genetic testing, research, and forensics. Commonly made in the laboratory by solid-phase chemical synthesis, these small fragments of nucleic aci ...

tominersen to lower mutant huntingtin production in HD, and gave the first dose of the drug to a patient in 2015. He serves on the Medical Advisory Panel of the UK

Huntington's Disease Association The Huntington's Disease Association (HDA) is a charity that supports people in England and Wales affected by the genetic neurodegenerative brain condition Huntington's disease (HD). The HDA was founded in 1986 and is based in Liverpool. It sup ...

, the Editorial Board of the

Journal of Huntington's Disease The ''Journal of Huntingtons Disease'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal in neuroscience that covers all aspects of Huntington's disease and related disorders. It was established in 2012 and is published by IOS Press. The editors-in-c ...

, the

Association of British Neurologists Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...

Neurogenetics Advisory Panel, and the Translational Neurology Panel of the

European Academy of Neurology The European Academy of Neurology (EAN) is a non-profit organisation that unites and supports neurologists across Europe. Currently, 47 European national neurological societies as well as 4000 individuals are registered members of EAN. Thus, EAN r ...

. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the European Huntington's Disease Network and Co-lead facilitator of the Network's Biomarkers Working Group. He is a founder member of the advisory panel to the UK All-party parliamentary group on Huntington's disease. He was promoted to professor of neurology in October 2020, in the UCL Faculty of Brain Sciences. As of September 2022, Wild has authored 7 book chapters and 150 peer-reviewed publications with over 12,000 citations.

Public engagement work

In 2010, with Jeff Carroll, Wild founded HDBuzz, an online source of accessible news about Huntington's disease research, that has received awards from patient advocacy groups. He said he helped establish HDBuzz to provide tempered research news to counter the hype of medical press releases about HD. He has commented that common online opinions that people with Huntington's disease should not be allowed to have children "borders on historical eugenics-type thinking". He has described Huntington's as "the most curable incurable brain disorder" because of the possibility of targeting treatments to its known genetic cause. Wild appeared in the documentary feature film The Inheritance and was a judge for the 2015

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

Europe PubMed Central Europe PubMed Central (Europe PMC) is an open-access repository that contains millions of biomedical research works. It was known as UK PubMed Central until 1 November 2012. Service Europe PMC provides free access to more than 9.3 million full-te ...

'Access to Understanding' contest for science writers. He has appeared on the

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

Naked Scientists programme. In July 2016, he appeared on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

Woman's Hour ''Woman's Hour'' is a radio magazine programme broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC Light Programme, BBC Radio 2, and later BBC Radio 4. It has been on the air since 1946. History The first BBC programme for women was the programme cal ...

programme talking about Huntington's disease with

Jenni Murray Dame Jennifer Susan Murray, (''née'' Bailey; born 12 May 1950) is an English journalist and broadcaster, best known for presenting BBC Radio 4's '' Woman's Hour'' from 1987 to 2020. Early life Murray was born in Barnsley, West Riding of Yo ...

. In December 2017, he appeared on RTE Radio 1 talking about Huntington's disease treatments. In 2020, he appeared in the Ken Burns PBS documentary The Gene: An Intimate History. In 2021, he wrote the afterword of Patient 1, a book by Charlotte Raven about her experiences with Huntington's disease, including her participation on the trial of the experimental drug tominersen. Wild is Raven's doctor and injected her with the first dose of tominersen on the Gen-Peak trial.

Personal life

As of 2021 Wild lived in East London with his partner Joel, a cat and a chihuahua, Riley.

Awards and honours

* 2012

Huntington Society of Canada The Huntington Society of Canada (HSC) (French: ''Société Huntington du Canada, SHC'') is a non-profit organisation that supports people in Canada affected by the genetic neurodegenerative brain condition Huntington's disease (HD). The HSC was f ...

Community Leadership Award * 2014

Huntington's Disease Society of America The Huntington's Disease Society of America is a US non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of those affected by Huntington's disease, an incurable, genetically transmitted degenerative disease of the nervous system that affect ...

Researcher of the Year Award. * 2015 Huntington Study Group Insight of the Year (for his CSF mutant huntingtin research). * 2017 Huntington Study Group Insight of the Year (for the finding that neurofilament light in blood can predict onset and progression of HD). * 2018 Elected Fellow of the

Royal College of Physicians The Royal College of Physicians of London, commonly referred to simply as the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of ph ...

References

External links

*
HDBuzz, Wild's Huntington's disease research news site

Edward Wild Consultant profile at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Dr Edward Wild IRIS academic profile at UCL

Google Scholar Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wild, Edward British neurologists British neuroscientists Huntington's disease Alumni of University College London University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Academics of University College London Living people 1978 births Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge