Professor Ruth Itzhaki is a Visiting Professorial Fellow at the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing.

Professor Itzhaki is a research scientist. She graduated as a physicist, then carried out research for an MSc and PhD in Biophysics - all London University degrees.

She subsequently moved to Cambridge, to the Department of Radiotherapeutics, holding a Beit Memorial Fellowship for Medical Research and the Wheldale-Onslow Memorial Fellowship at Newnham College, Cambridge University. Her next move was to Manchester where she worked in the Paterson Laboratories (cancer research), and then in the University of Manchester. She is now an emeritus professor at Manchester University but lives in Oxford. 

Her research topics have been diverse, most recently Alzheimer's disease, especially, the role of viruses acting with a genetic factor in dementia, and the role of the genetic factor APOE in determining susceptibility to infection or outcome of infection by pathogens.

For the virus work, she won an Investigator award from The Lancet, a Wellcome Trust Innovative award, two Olympus Foundation awards, an Alzheimer's Research Forum award and a Manchester City Council award. Alzheimer’s Research Forum Research Award, 2011. Top recipient of Alzheimer’s Germ Quest award, 2021. Recognised as an inaugural Scholar GPS Highly Ranked Scholar, 2024. Highly commended for the Sir Paul Curran award for academic journalism, 2024. Named on STAT’s Status List of 50 influential people in Life Sciences 2025. Elected to membership of Academy of Europe, 2026,

Her book titled “Honour and Shame: Mistreatment and Violence against Women in developing Countries”, was published early in 2026.