This article has been amended since first publication to remove a republication of the Hippocratic Post article, and to clarify criticisms of the author's research.

Controversial new research has been criticised for suggesting that aluminium in vaccines may be linked to autism.

The study claimed that some autistic children have up to 10 times more of the metal in their brains than what is considered safe in adults.

The paper alleges that aluminium crosses the membrane that separates the brain from circulating blood and accumulates in cells involved in maintaining a constant internal environment, such as temperature.

Controversial new research has been criticised for suggesting that aluminium in vaccines may be linked to autism

The researchers speculate autism sufferers may have genetic changes that cause them to accumulate aluminium which healthy people are able to remove.

The findings are controversial after the disgraced gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield said in 1995 that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is linked to bowel disease and autism.

Mr Wakefield's view has since been widely discredited, however, the World Health Organization claims people's fear of vaccines means many, particularly young children, are unprotected against measles.

In a piece for The Hippocratic Post, Professor Exley discusses how aluminium accumulates in the brains of autism sufferers and if vaccines may be to blame.

The claims have come in for criticism by fellow academics, who have called into question the methodology of Professor Exley's approach, and accuse the study of being 'profoundly flawed'.

Dorothy Bishop, professor of neurodevelopmental biology at the University of Oxford, told BuzzFeed that the main problem was the lack of any control in the testing.

She explained that without concurrent testing on the brains of people who had NOT been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder - the control group - she would have completely dismissed the results of the study.

Professor Exley responded that 'suitable controls were unavailable'.

Similarly, Jonathan Green, a professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Manchester who specialises in autism, told the publication that it was it was 'absurd to draw conclusions' from the research.

He pointed to the fact that the study made no reference to how any of the donors had died, something both he and Professor Bishop agreed would be a highly relevant factor to take into account when coming to conclusions based on the paper.

In response, Professor Exley claimed that none of the brain donors had died of causes which would led him to believe they would have elevated levels of aluminium.