Albert Gjedde is a Danish neuroscientist. He is Professor of Neurobiology and Pharmacology

Pharmacology

Pharmacology is the branch of medicine and biology concerned with the study of drug action. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur between a living organism and chemicals that affect normal or abnormal biochemical function...

 at the Faculty of Health Sciences and Head of Department of Neuroscience

Neuroscience

Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. Traditionally, neuroscience has been seen as a branch of biology. However, it is currently an interdisciplinary science that collaborates with other fields such as chemistry, computer science, engineering, linguistics, mathematics,...

 and Pharmacology at the University of Copenhagen

University of Copenhagen

The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...

. He is currently also Adjunct Professor of Neuroscience at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Aarhus University, Aarhus

Aarhus

Aarhus or Århus is the second-largest city in Denmark. The principal port of Denmark, Aarhus is on the east side of the peninsula of Jutland in the geographical center of Denmark...

, Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

, Adjunct Professor of Neurology

Neurology

Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...

 and Neurosurgery

Neurosurgery

Neurosurgery is the medical specialty concerned with the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spine, spinal cord, peripheral nerves, and extra-cranial cerebrovascular system.-In the United States:In...

 in the Department of Neurology, Montreal Neurological Institute

Montreal Neurological Institute

The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital is an academic medical centre dedicated to neuroscience research, training and clinical care. The Institute is part of McGill University and the Hospital is one of the five teaching hospitals of the McGill University Health Centre, in Montreal,...

, McGill University

McGill University

Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...

, Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, and Adjunct Professor of Radiology

Radiology

Radiology is a medical specialty that employs the use of imaging to both diagnose and treat disease visualized within the human body. Radiologists use an array of imaging technologies to diagnose or treat diseases...

 and Radiological Science in the Division of Nuclear Medicine

Nuclear medicine

In nuclear medicine procedures, elemental radionuclides are combined with other elements to form chemical compounds, or else combined with existing pharmaceutical compounds, to form radiopharmaceuticals. These radiopharmaceuticals, once administered to the patient, can localize to specific organs...

, Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins University

The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...

, Baltimore

Baltimore

Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...

, MD, USA.

Academic positions

In Denmark, Albert Gjedde served on the Medical Research Council (FSS) and chaired the Research Advisory Committee of the Royal Library. He now serves on the official Danish Committee on Science Misconduct (UVVU). In the Nordic countries, he served on the coordinating committee of Nordic medical research councils (NOS-M). In Europe, he served on the standing committee of the European Medical Research Councils (EMRC) of the ESF and currently serves on the Program Committee of the Health aspects of the Seventh Framework (FP7) program of the European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

. He also serves on the Executive Committee of the European Dana Alliance for the Brain (EDAB) which is affiliated with the Dana Foundation

Dana Foundation

The Dana Foundation is a private philanthropic organization based in New York dedicated to the support of grants and outreach in science, health, and education, particularly in the neurosciences...

. Albert Gjedde is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

American Association for the Advancement of Science

The American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...

, the Royal Society of Canada

Royal Society of Canada

The Royal Society of Canada , may also operate under the more descriptive name RSC: The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada , is the oldest association of scientists and scholars in Canada...

, the American College of NeuropsychoPharmacology and the Academy of Europe.

Short Biography

Born in the Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

 suburb of Gentofte in 1946, Albert Gjedde spent time as an undergraduate student in Berkeley, California

Berkeley, California

Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...

, USA (1964–65, 1968), Stellenbosch, Cape Province

Cape Province

The Province of the Cape of Good Hope was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequently the Republic of South Africa...

, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 (1968), and Lexington, Kentucky

Lexington, Kentucky

Lexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 63rd largest in the US. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region...

, USA (1969). Albert Gjedde received his M.D. and D.Sc. degrees from Copenhagen University in 1973 and 1983, respectively. He did postdoctoral work in the Neurology Department of the New York Hospital

New York Hospital

New York Hospital or “Old New York Hospital” or “City Hospital” was the oldest hospital in New York City and the second oldest hospital in the United States.-Early History:...

-Cornell Medical Center 1973-76 and held assistant and associate professorships in Medical Physiology at the University of Copenhagen 1976-1986.

As a junior investigator, Albert Gjedde worked as a visiting scientist at universities or research institutions in Lund

Lund

-Main sights:During the 12th and 13th centuries, when the town was the seat of the archbishop, many churches and monasteries were built. At its peak, Lund had 27 churches, but most of them were demolished as result of the Reformation in 1536. Several medieval buildings remain, including Lund...

, Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

; Cologne

Cologne

Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

, Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

, and Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

; Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

; Szeged

Szeged

' is the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county town of Csongrád county. The University of Szeged is one of the most distinguished universities in Hungary....

, Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

; and Baltimore, MD, USA.

In 1986 he joined the McConnell Brain Imaging Center at McGill University in Montreal where he held the post of Director between 1989 and 1994.

As founder, Albert Gjedde headed the PET Center at Aarhus University Hospitals in Denmark during the years 1994 to 2008, and in this period he also founded the Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience (CFIN) in 2001 and the Danish Neuroscience Center in 2008, both at Aarhus University.

Albert Gjedde joined the University of Copenhagen in 2008.

Research

Albert Gjedde’s research focuses on the relations between neuroplasticity

Neuroplasticity

Neuroplasticity is a non-specific neuroscience term referring to the ability of the brain and nervous system in all species to change structurally and functionally as a result of input from the environment. Plasticity occurs on a variety of levels, ranging from cellular changes involved in...

 and neurotransmission

Neurotransmission

Neurotransmission , also called synaptic transmission, is the process by which signaling molecules called neurotransmitters are released by a neuron , and bind to and activate the receptors of another neuron...

 that can be revealed by mapping radioligand

Radioligand

A radioligand is a radioactive biochemical substance that is used for diagnosis or for research-oriented study of the receptor systems of the body....

 binding and the neuroplastic changes of brain functions. The investigations explore the relation between energy metabolism and neurotransmission by recording the changes of energy metabolism and consciousness

Consciousness

Consciousness is a term that refers to the relationship between the mind and the world with which it interacts. It has been defined as: subjectivity, awareness, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood, and the executive control system of the mind...

 under pharmacological and other manipulations. He uses PET

Positron emission tomography

Positron emission tomography is nuclear medicine imaging technique that produces a three-dimensional image or picture of functional processes in the body. The system detects pairs of gamma rays emitted indirectly by a positron-emitting radionuclide , which is introduced into the body on a...

 to understand the synthesis of radioligand and tracer molecules that match the neurotransmitter

Neurotransmitter

Neurotransmitters are endogenous chemicals that transmit signals from a neuron to a target cell across a synapse. Neurotransmitters are packaged into synaptic vesicles clustered beneath the membrane on the presynaptic side of a synapse, and are released into the synaptic cleft, where they bind to...

 molecules and the behavior of these transmitters under different functional conditions of the brain, normal as well as pathological, and the spatial and temporal relations among changes of cerebral blood flow

Cerebral blood flow

Cerebral blood flow, or CBF, is the blood supply to the brain in a given time. In an adult, CBF is typically 750 millitres per minute or 15% of the cardiac output. This equates to 50 to 54 millilitres of blood per 100 grams of brain tissue per minute. CBF is tightly regulated to meet the brain's...

, which is commonly used as a measure of brain work, and the cerebral oxygen

Oxygen

Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...

 consumption rate, which is the precise measure of this work. Albert Gjedde’s collaborations focus on experiments with volunteer subjects and patients that explore the lesion

Lesion

A lesion is any abnormality in the tissue of an organism , usually caused by disease or trauma. Lesion is derived from the Latin word laesio which means injury.- Types :...

s and degeneration of brain tissue in disorders such as epilepsy

Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...

, ludomania, Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...

, stroke

Stroke

A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...

, depression, and somatizing disorders

Somatization disorder

Somatization disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis applied to patients who persistently complain of varied physical symptoms that have no identifiable physical origin...

, as well as disorders related to addiction

Substance dependence

The section about substance dependence in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders does not use the word addiction at all. It explains:...

. Experiments explore the restructuring of neuronal networks that follows when sensory activity is processed by healthy subjects or volunteers suffering from inborn or acquired lesions.

In 1977, with Clifford Patlak, Albert Gjedde described the Gjedde-Patlak plot, also known as Multitime Graphical Analysis (MTGA), (Gjedde 1981, 1982, Patlak et al. 1983). The MTGA linearizes irreversible brain uptake of tracers in a manner that enables regression estimates to be made of uptake rates.

Noteworthy Publications

Selected highly cited original peer-reviewed publications:

• Gjedde A, Crone C (1975) Induction processes in blood-brain transfer of ketone bodies during starvation. Am J Physiol 229: 1165-1169.

• Gjedde A, Lockwood A, Duffy TE, Plum F (1978) Cerebral blood flow and metabolism in chronically hyperammonemic rats: Effect of an acute ammonia challenge. Ann Neurol 3: 325-330.

• Gjedde A, Rasmussen M (1980) Pentobarbital anesthesia reduces blood-brain glucose transfer in the rat. J Neurochem 35: 1382-1387.

• Gjedde A, (1981) High- and low-affinity transport of D-glucose from blood to brain. J Neurochem 36: 1463-1471.

• Gjedde A, Crone C (1981) Blood-brain glucose transfer: Repression in chronic hyperglycemia. Science 214: 456-457.

• Gjedde A (1982) Calculation of glucose phosphorylation from brain uptake of glucose analogs in vivo: A re-examination. Brain Res Rev 4: 237-274.

• Gjedde A, Diemer NH (1983) Autoradiographic determination of regional brain glucose content J Cereb Blood Flow Metab 3: 303-310.

• Wong DF, Wagner HN Jr, Dannals RF, Links JM, Frost JJ, Ravert HT, Wilson AA, Rosenbaum AE, Gjedde A, Douglass KH, et al. Effects of age on dopamine and serotonin receptors measured by positron tomography in the living human brain. Science. 1984 Dec 21;226(4681):1393-6.

• Gjedde A, Wienhard K, Heiss W-D, Kloster G, Diemer NH, Herholz K, Pawlik G (1985) Comparative regional analysis of 2-fluorodeoxyglucose and methylglucose uptake in brain of four stroke patients. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab 5: 282-289.

• Wong DF, Wagner HN Jr, Tune LE, Dannals RF, Pearlson GD, Links JM, Tamminga CA, Broussolle EP, Ravert HT, Wilson AA, Toung JK, Malat J, Williams JA, O'Tuama LA, Snyder SH, Kuhar MJ, Gjedde A. Positron emission tomography reveals elevated D2 dopamine receptors in drug-naïve schizophrenics. Science. 1986 Dec 19;234(4783):1558-63.

• Teitelbaum JS, Zatorre RJ, Carpenter S, Gendron D, Evans AC, Gjedde A, Cashman NR. Neurologic sequelae of domoic acid intoxication due to the ingestion of contaminated mussels. N Engl J Med. 1990 Jun 21;322(25):1781-7.

• Gjedde A, Reith J, Dyve S, Léger G, Guttman M, Diksic M, Evans AC, Kuwabara H (1991) DOPA decarboxylase activity of the living human brain. Proc Nat Acad Sci (USA) 88: 2721-2725.

• Zatorre RJ, Evans AC, Meyer E, Gjedde A. Lateralization of phonetic and pitch discrimination in speech processing. Science. 1992 May 8;256(5058):846-9.

• Spencer DD, Robbins RJ, Naftolin F, Marek KL, Vollmer T, Leranth C, Roth RH, Price LH, Gjedde A, Bunney BS, et al. Unilateral transplantation of human fetal mesencephalic tissue into the caudate nucleus of patients with Parkinson's disease. N Engl J Med. 1992 Nov 26;327(22):1541-8.

• Reith J, Benkelfat C, Sherwin A, Yasuhara Y, Kuwabara H, Andermann F, Bachneff S, Cumming P, Diksic M, Dyve SE, Etienne P, Evans AC, Lal S, Shevell M, Savard G, Wong DF, Chouinard G, Gjedde A. Elevated dopa decarboxylase activity in living brain of patients with psychosis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1994 Nov 22;91(24):11651-4.

• Wong DF, Harris JC, Naidu S, Yokoi F, Marenco S, Dannals RF, Ravert HT, Yaster M, Evans A, Rousset O, Bryan RN, Gjedde A, Kuhar MJ, Breese GR. Dopamine transporters are markedly reduced in Lesch-Nyhan disease in vivo. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1996 May 28;93(11):5539-43.

• Kupers R, Fumal A, de Noordhout AM, Gjedde A, Schoenen J, Ptito M. Transcranial magnetic stimulation of the visual cortex induces somatotopically organized qualia in blind subjects. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Aug 29;103(35):13256-60.

Publication Statistics End of 2010

• Items listed by ISI Thompson: 475
• Sum of times cited: 12,057
• Average citations per item: 25.38
• Hirsch Index (h-index): 53

Books

• Gjedde A (1971) Peter Ludvig Panums videnskabelige indsats [Scientific Accomplishments of Peter Ludvig Panum]. Bibliotek for Læger, Copenhagen: Danish Medical Association Publishers, 270 pp.

• Melchior JC, Andreasen E, Brøchner-Mortensen K, Gjedde A, Møller-Christensen V, Trolle D (editors) (1979) Københavns Universitet 1479-1979 [Copenhagen University 1479-1979]; bind VII: Det lægevidenskabelige Fakultet [volume 7: Faculty of Medicine] Copenhagen: Københavns Universitet, 500 pp.

• Gjedde A, Hansen SB, Knudsen GM, Paulson OB (editors) (2000) Physiological Imaging of the Brain with PET. San Diego: Academic Press, 413 pp.

• Saleemi A, Bohn OS, Gjedde A (editors) (2005) In Search of a Language for the Mind-Brain. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 399 pp.

• Gjedde A, Bauer WR, Wong DF (2011) Neurokinetics. The Dynamics of Neurobiology in Vivo. New York: Springer, 343 pp.