Making sense of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s

Making sense of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s

  • Microscopic photograph of the hippocampus demonstrating the characteristics of Alzheimer’s disease
    Microscopic photograph of the hippocampus demonstrating the characteristics of Alzheimer’s disease

The development of new treatments for diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s is one step closer thanks to the generous support of the Frances and Augustus Newman Foundation.

The ground-breaking research that Tuomas is leading will in time have a central role in diagnostic and drug development for dementia-related diseases.

Through the support of a Next Generation Fellowship funded by the Foundation, Dr Tuomas Knowles’s research in the Department of Chemistry is advancing the understanding of the underlying molecular causes of some of the most rapidly proliferating neurodegenerative diseases of the modern world.

“There are no disease modifying therapies for Alzheimer’s and dementia at the moment, only limited treatment for symptoms. We have to solve what happens at the molecular level before we can progress and have real impact.”

In 2013, his group did just that. By mapping the pathway that causes the structure of protein molecules within cells to become corrupted they pinpointed the catalytic trigger for the onset of a neurodegenerative condition.

The ground-breaking research that Tuomas is leading will in time have a central role in diagnostic and drug development for dementia-related diseases. The need for these diagnostics, treatments and cures is becoming even more urgent as our as populations continue to increase and live longer.

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