Advisory Board

Professor Tipu Z. Aziz

Tipu Z. Aziz, BSc, MD, MBBS, FRCS, FRCS (Surgical neurology) is Neurosurgeon at John Radcliffe Hospital, UK. He is Member of International College of Surgeons, Member of Society of British Neurosurgeons, and Member of the British Medical Association.
 
Tipu’s interests include Neurosurgery, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, dystonia, spasmodic torticollis (fixed abnormal posture of the neck), tremor, and intractable neuropathic pain.
 
He trains surgeons from the UK and abroad in functional and stereotactic surgery for movement disorders. He has established local movement disorder services, including surgery at Charing Cross Hospital, London; Karachi, Pakistan; Brisbane, Australia; Treviso, Italy; Iceland; and Singapore. He advises the U.K. Department of Health via the NSCAG forum on providing functional surgery at nationally approved centres.
 
Research has routinely been part of his clinical practice. He lectures widely at Magdalen College, Oxford and Imperial College Medical School, London, and supervises numerous research projects. Much of his time in teaching is spent in the supervision of research projects of MSc, MD, and DPhil graduate students.
 
Projects have included visually guided tracking tasks in patients with multiple sclerosis and tremor; changes in voluntary movements after thalamotomy and pallidotomy for Parkinson’s Disease; a study of the internal perception of speed of movement in Parkinsonian patients; a comparative study of lesioning the thalamus, pallidum and the sub-thalamic nucleus in alleviation of Parkinson’s Disease.
 
Tipu coauthored Reversal of akinesia in experimental parkinsonism by GABA antagonist microinjections in the pedunculopontine nucleus, Involvement of the Medial Pallidum in Focal Myoclonic Dystonia: A Clinical and Neurophysiological Case Study, Pedunculopontine nucleus stimulation improves akinesia in a Parkinsonian monkey, Analysis of action tremor and impaired control of movement velocity in multiple sclerosis during visually guided wrist-tracking tasks, Global attentional—executive sequelae following surgical lesions to globus pallidus interna, and Endovascular Treatment of Intracranial Aneurysms: A Minimally Invasive Approach with Advantages for Elderly Patients.
 
He lectures nationally at post-graduate meetings for doctors in training, to meetings of the Parkinson’s Disease Society, and to the International Tremor Foundation. He is a frequently invited speaker at international meetings.
 
Tipu was born in East Pakistan, now known as Bangladesh into what The Guardian called a “medical dynasty”. He arrived in Britain at the age of 17 with just three O-levels, but after passing A-levels, he studied neurophysiology at University College London, where he became interested in deep brain stimulation. He went on to study for a doctorate at Manchester University.
 
Watch A debate on Vivisection between Michelle Thew and Professor Tipu Aziz moderated by Jeremy Paxman.