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Alzhiemer's disease, Parkinson's disease, dementia and motor neuron disease: the brain can be effected in many different ways through age-related diseases. In this event you will hear from researchers at the forefront of this field, who are trying to understand how and why the brain can become damaged. Emily will discuss the ways that Parkinson's can occur and strategies to find new drugs to treat the disease. Allan will talk about the idea of personalised medical approaches to Motor Neuron Disease patients and finally Aimee will describe how stress can impact the brain.
Parkinson’s and powerhouses - a tale of loose connections
Pauline Fleuren
(The University of Sheffield)
Alicja Olejnik
(Research Technician, The University of Sheffield)
Dr Aina Mogas Barcons
(Researcher)
Dr Naomi Hartopp
(Postdoctoral Research Associate at Sheffield Institute of Translational Neuroscience)
Emily Mossman
(Researcher, Neuroscience)
1 in 37 people alive in the UK today will be diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Despite this, there are currently limited treatments available and no cure. Although the cause of Parkinson’s is unknown, there is increasing evidence implicating damaged mitochondria - the powerhouse of the cell. This talk addresses myths associated with Parkinson’s and mitochondria, providing an insight into how the two are linked. We demonstrate Sheffield’s current drug discovery research and how we aim to find new treatments combating this often misunderstood disease.
Personalised medicine approach to ALS treatment
Allan Shaw
(Researcher, Neuroscience)
Jannigje Kok
(PhD student at the University of Sheffield, studying DNA damage in ALS. MRC DiMeN DTP PhD programme.)
Katie Bowden
(MRC DiMeN PhD Student at SITraN (Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience))
Sarah Granger
(Research Technician at the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN))
Motor Neuron Disease (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis - ALS) is a devastating neurological disease that is ultimately fatal. In the last twenty years, there have been over 50 failed clinical trials. How can we improve our approach? Instead of treating all patients the same, do we need to understand differences between patients and apply a personalised medicine approach? Skin biopsies taken from patients can be used to re-create the cells involved in ALS, which can be studied and drug treated to identify treatments that may benefit specific patients.
Your Brain on Stress
Dr Aimee Paskins
(Researcher, Neuroscience)
We all experience stress from time to time, but did you know your cells can also become stressed? Come find out what happens inside your brain during stress, and how this can unfortunately lead to the development of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimers, Dementia and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis later on in life.
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