The MRC-LMB and Department of Clinical Neurosciences Initiative in mechanism-based therapeutics of common human neurodegenerative diseases

The aim of this initiative, developed by Michel Goedert (MRC LMB) and Alastair Compston (Department of Clinical Neurosciences), is to identify core mechanisms of protein aggregation and spreading in neurodegeneration; and to apply that knowledge to first-in-human studies of putative new therapies using the most informative patients and sensitive outcome measures of efficacy. 

The group in MRC LMB combines expertise in high-resolution structural biology, mechanisms of protein aggregation and intercellular transfer, and quality control processes in neurones and glia; research in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences focuses on the consequences of these events for mechanisms of neuronal and synaptic loss that lead to neurodegeneration, the development of novel therapies, and their evaluation in patients using sensitive clinical outcomes and studies of brain structure and function based on positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging.  

A first example of the work undertaken as part of the initiative is that of Dr Anne Bertolotti (First step in safely preventing neurodegenerative diseases)