Maps, Memories and Mending: Stories from the Nervous System

Somewhere in your head, a few million neurons are quietly (or not so quietly) keeping track of where you are, and how to get home (or to any other place). In this talk, Caswell Barry will take you inside the brain’s navigation system — the specialised cells that build maps, replay journeys, and help you form memories of places. He’ll also explore what happens when this system starts to fail, and why getting lost is often the first sign of Alzheimer’s disease.

The nervous system is a vast and complex network, but when injury or disease strikes, its ability to heal is limited. Dr. Holly Gregory, a Maplethorpe Postdoctoral Fellow at the UCL School of Pharmacy, is working to overcome this. Her research is pioneering methods to deliver pro-regenerative agents to the brain and peripheral nerves to treat degeneration and injury. Specifically, Holly is endeavouring to use viruses to supply proteins that could slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease, and exploring the use of cell, protein, and drug combinations to repair damaged peripheral nerve.