Professor Lakshminarayan Ranganath (LRR) is a consultant at the Liverpool University Hospitals Foundation NHS Trust. Since 2003, he has worked on advancing knowledge in AKU in addition to providing the busy service role. LRR established the NHS Highly Specialised Services funded Robert Gregory National Alkaptonuria Centre (NAC), employing off-label use of nitisinone, bringing together a multidisciplinary team of specialists to deliver a single-stop care at annual review for AKU patients in the UK. LRR is the inaugural Director of the NAC. Patients in the NAC have been able to access nitisinone free of charge since 2012. LRR has carried out a national survey that identified 81 UK, 450 European and 1000 patients worldwide. He has pioneered a composite score for the assessment of AKU patients namely the alkaptonuria severity score index (AKUSSI). LRR was the chief investigator who co-ordinated DevelopAKUre, a European Union-funded international research programme, which involved 3 studies in AKU, including a 4-year randomised nitisinone clinical trial, called SONIA 2, in adults with alkaptonuria. This resulted in the EMA approval of nitisinone in AKU bringing advances to all patients with AKU worldwide. LRR has authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications and supported numerous research students (PhD, MSc,MD) into AKU.
