Professional background

Professor Rohrer graduated from the University of Cambridge with a first class degree in natural sciences before studying medicine at the University of Oxford and University College London.

He trained in general medicine at the Hammersmith and Whittington hospitals (MRCP 2004), and in neurology at the Royal Free Hospital and National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. He is now an MRC clinician scientist and honorary consultant neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery.

He runs a weekly specialist cognitive disorders clinic where he has a particular interest in young onset and genetic dementias, and a fortnightly general neurology clinic. He also has an interest in acute neurology and sees neurological referrals at University College Hospital.

Research interests

Professor Rohrer's research focuses on the neuroimaging of frontotemporal dementia (FTD), particularly in relation to its underlying genetic causes.

Research in the field of FTD has led to the publication of over 200 Pubmed-referenced papers and he has spoken at a number of international conferences about his work.

He co-ordinates the Genetic FTD Initiative, GENFI, a multicentre cohort study of presymptomatic genetic FTD (www.genfi.org.uk), and has been the clinical lead for the International FTD GWAS Consortium.

He has also set up FTD UK, an annual scientific meeting of UK researchers who work in the FTD field (running since 2011), and runs a website dedicated to providing research updates to the general public about FTD: FTD talk. He is also involved in running a support group for individuals from families where there is a genetic cause for FTD (www.raredementiasupport.org).

Publications

  1. Beck J*, Rohrer JD*, (*joint first author) Campbell T, Isaacs A, Morrison KE, Goodall EF, Warrington EK, Stevens J, Revesz T, Holton J et al. A distinct clinical, neuropsychological and radiological phenotype is associated with progranulin gene mutations in a large UK series. Brain. 2008 Mar;131(Pt 3):706-20.
  2. Rohrer JD, Warren JD, Barnes J, Mead S, Beck J, Pepple T, Boyes R, Omar R, Collinge J, Stevens JM et al. Mapping the progression of progranulin-associated frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Nat Clin Pract Neurol. 2008 Aug;4(8):455-60.
  3. Rohrer JD, McNaught E, Foster J, Clegg SL, Barnes J, Omar R, Warrington EK, Rossor MN, Warren JD, Fox NC. Tracking progression in frontotemporal lobar degeneration: serial MRI in semantic dementia. Neurology. 2008 Oct 28;71(18):1445-51.
  4. Rohrer JD, Warren JD, Modat M, Ridgway GR, Douiri A, Rossor MN, Ourselin S, Fox NC. Patterns of cortical thinning in the language variants of frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Neurology. 2009 May 5;72(18):1562-9.
  5. Rohrer JD, Ridgway GR, Crutch SJ, Hailstone J, Goll JC, Clarkson MJ, Mead S, Beck J, Mummery C, Ourselin S et al. Progressive logopenic/phonological aphasia: erosion of the language network. Neuroimage. 2010 Jan 1;49(1):984-93.
  6. Rohrer JD, Crutch SJ, Warrington EK, Warren JD. Progranulin-associated primary progressive aphasia: a distinct phenotype? Neuropsychologia. 2010 Jan;48(1):288-97.
  7. Rohrer JD, Guerreiro R, Vandrovcova J, Uphill J, Reiman D, Beck J, Isaacs AM, Authier A, Ferrari R, Fox NC et al. The heritability and genetics of frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Neurology. 2009 Nov 3;73(18):1451-6.
  8. Rohrer JD, Ridgway GR, Modat M, Ourselin S, Mead S, Fox NC, Rossor MN, Warren JD. Distinct profiles of brain atrophy in frontotemporal lobar degeneration caused by progranulin and tau mutations. Neuroimage. 2010 Nov 15;53(3):1070-6.
  9. Gordon E, Rohrer JD, Kim LG, Omar R, Rossor MN, Fox NC, Warren JD. Measuring disease progression in frontotemporal lobar degeneration: a clinical and MRI study. Neurology. 2010 Feb 23;74(8):666-73.
  10. Rohrer JD, Rossor MN, Warren JD. Alzheimer's pathology in primary progressive aphasia. Neurobiol Aging. 2012 Apr;33(4):744-52.
  11. Rohrer JD, Rossor MN, Warren JD. Syndromes of nonfluent primary progressive aphasia: a clinical and neurolinguistic analysis. Neurology. 2010 Aug 17;75(7):603-10.
  12. Rohrer JD, Sauter D, Scott S, Rossor MN, Warren JD. Receptive prosody in nonfluent primary progressive aphasias. Cortex. 2012 Mar;48(3):308-16.
  13. Rohrer JD, Geser F, Zhou J, Gennatas ED, Sidhu M, Trojanowski JQ, Dearmond SJ, Miller BL, Seeley WW. TDP-43 subtypes are associated with distinct atrophy patterns in frontotemporal dementia. Neurology. 2010 Dec 14;75(24):2204-11.
  14. Rohrer JD, Lashley T, Schott JM, Warren JE et al. Clinical and neuroanatomical signatures of tissue pathology in frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Brain. 2011 Sep;134(Pt 9):2565-81.
  15. Rohrer JD, Clarkson MJ, Kittus R, Rossor MN, Ourselin S, Warren JD, Fox NC. Rates of hemispheric and lobar atrophy in the language variants of frontotemporal lobar degeneration. J Alzheimers Dis. 2012;30(2):407-11.
  16. Rohrer JD, Caso F, Mahoney C, Henry M et al. Patterns of longitudinal brain atrophy in the logopenic variant of primary progressive aphasia. Brain Lang. 2013 Nov;127(2):121-6.
  17. Rohrer JD, Warren JD, Fox NC, Rossor MN. Presymptomatic studies in genetic frontotemporal dementia. Rev Neurol (Paris). 2013 Oct;169(10):820-4.
  18. Rohrer JD, Beck J, Plagnol V, Gordon E et al. Exome sequencing reveals a novel partial deletion in the progranulin gene causing primary progressive aphasia. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2013 Dec;84(12):1411-2.
  19. Lashley T, Rohrer JD, Mahoney C, Gordon E et al. A pathogenic progranulin mutation and C9orf72 repeat expansion in a family with frontotemporal dementia. Neuropathol Appl Neurobiol. 2014 Jun;40(4):502-13.
  20. Ferrari R, Hernandez DG, Nalls MA, Rohrer JD et al. Frontotemporal dementia and its subtypes: a genome-wide association study. Lancet Neurol. 2014 Jul;13(7):686-99.
  21. Mahoney CJ, Simpson IJ, Nicholas JM, Fletcher PD, Downey LE, Golden HL, Clark CN, Schmitz N, Rohrer JD, Schott JM, Zhang H, Ourselin S, Warren JD, Fox NC. Longitudinal diffusion tensor imaging in frontotemporal dementia. Ann Neurol. 2015 Jan;77(1):33-46.
  22. Cash DM, Rohrer JD, Ryan NS, Ourselin S, Fox NC. Imaging endpoints for clinical trials in Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimers Res Ther. 2014 Dec 20;6(9):87.
  23. Rohrer JD, Isaacs AM, Mizielinska S, Mead S, Lashley T, Wray S, Sidle K, Fratta P, Orrell RW, Hardy J, Holton J, Revesz T, Rossor MN, Warren JD. C9orf72 expansions in frontotemporal dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Lancet Neurol. 2015 Mar;14(3):291-301.
  24. Rohrer JD, Nicholas JM, Cash DM, van Swieten J, Dopper E, Jiskoot L, van Minkelen R, Rombouts SA, Cardoso MJ, Clegg S, Espak M, Mead S, Thomas DL, De Vita E, Masellis M, Black SE, Freedman M, Keren R, MacIntosh BJ, Rogaeva E, Tang-Wai D, Tartaglia MC, Laforce R Jr, Tagliavini F, Tiraboschi P, Redaelli V, Prioni S, Grisoli M, Borroni B, Padovani A, Galimberti D, Scarpini E, Arighi A, Fumagalli G, Rowe JB, Coyle-Gilchrist I, Graff C, Fallström M, Jelic V, Ståhlbom AK, Andersson C, Thonberg H, Lilius L, Frisoni GB, Pievani M, Bocchetta M, Benussi L, Ghidoni R, Finger E, Sorbi S, Nacmias B, Lombardi G, Polito C, Warren JD, Ourselin S, Fox NC, Rossor MN. Presymptomatic cognitive and neuroanatomical changes in genetic frontotemporal dementia in the Genetic Frontotemporal dementia Initiative (GENFI) study: a cross-sectional analysis. Lancet Neurol. 2015 Mar;14(3):253-62.