Researchers across the UK DRI are looking into the causes, effects and impact of Parkinson’s disease, the fastest growing neurological condition that currently affects 145,000 people in the UK. As part of a major programme of work across the Institute, we recently brought together a group of early career researchers to discuss their work, share ideas and facilitate new collaborations at a lively meeting.
Ahead of World Parkinson’s Day, we spoke to three ECRs who attended the meeting. They told us why they’re excited about their work, what’s happening in the wider Parkinson’s research field, and recounted their highlights from the meeting.
Ann-Kathrin Schalkamp is a PhD student in Dr Cynthia Sandor’s lab (UK DRI at Cardiff), Dr Christina Toomey is a postdoctoral research associate in Prof Sonia Gandhi’s lab (UCL), and Áine Heffernan is a PhD Student in Dr Bhuvaneish Selvaraj and Prof Siddharthan Chandran’s labs (UKDRI at Edinburgh).
Tell us about your research - what are you working on?
Ann-Kathrin: My work aims to improve the detection and management of Parkinson's disease. I’m developing screening tools that can help identify early signs of Parkinson’s in the general population and explore how the disease progresses using large biobanks and deeply phenotyped cohorts.
Christina: I study the disease-related changes in post-mortem brains that have neurodegenerative conditions and pair this with different types of large-scale data to learn about how disease processes may be reflected within the pathology that we see under the microscope.
Áine: I study mutations in a gene called LRRK2, which are some of the most common genetic causes of familial Parkinson’s. Previous studies have demonstrated that the function of astrocytes, a special type of brain cell, is disrupted in Parkinson’s and in my research, I’m trying to understand how LRRK2 mutations are contributing to this effect.
