The North of Scotland Parkinson’s Research Podcast Series

Mitochondria - Professor Heather Mortiboys

Professor Heather Mortiboys, Head of Neuroscience and Deputy Dean of the School of Medicine and Population Health at the University of Sheffield is pushing the boundaries of Parkinson's research and drug discovery from every direction. With a particular focus on mitochondria, she has been at the cutting edge of pre-clinical and clinical research, working with cells to develop to models for testing drug compounds. Heather champions public and patient involvement throughout her work and is also deeply committed to mentorship and education, and dedicates significant time to early-career researchers.  
 

Parkinson's UK Virtual Biotech - Dr Lynsey Bilsland

Parkinson's UK Virtual Biotech launched in 2017 funded by donors from across the world, with the aim of speeding up research to reduce the  timescale for finding new treatments from decades down to years.  
Over £130m has been invested in high-potential early-stage projects, many of which are now 'coming-of-age' and in the final stages of clinical trials. 
Dr Lynsey Bilsland is the new Managing Director at the helm of the Virtual Biotech, and the person who's going to lead it into its exciting next phase. Julie and Helga met Lynsey to find out more about her new role and what lies ahead.

Moving Forward with PD, Mental Health - Becca Hunsdon

To start the fourth series of the podcast we are turning our focus towards the much neglected area of mental health related research.  Just over a year ago Becca Hunsdon from the University of Reading began recruiting participants for her PhD project ‘Moving Forward’, exploring a new online group programme she’d developed to offer psychological support and improve quality of life for people with Parkinson’s. Podcast co-presenter Helga Macfarlane volunteered to take part having never been involved in anything like it before. Over the following eight weeks she found huge value in Becca’s sessions, so along with podcast host Dr Julie Jones invited her into the studio to find out the thinking behind its group based online set-up and how, with her own psychotherapy input weaved throughout, it explores mood, emotions and coping, and reconnects participants with their values to support them through unhelpful thoughts and feelings. 

Landmark Project - Prof David Dexter and Prof Michael Johnson

Landmark is a ground-breaking research programme aimed at accelerating the search for new treatments by applying cutting edge techniques to gain a new level of insight at cellular level into the changes Parkinson's causes in the brain. Principal investigator Professor Michael Johnson from Imperial College London explains the need across the global research community for the new high quality datasets his team will produce. 
The project will use tissue samples from the Parkinson's UK Brain Bank, which was set up 22 years ago as a result of the remarkable foresight of Professor David Dexter, who is now the charity's Director of Research. He explains what it was like to see his vision come to fruition when Landmark was launched. 
The three year research programme brings together a Parkinson's UK led consortium of four major pharmaceutical companies - GSK, Novartis, Roche, and UCB, plus Imperial College London, which was made possible with £4m of funding from the Gatsby charitable foundation. 
https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/m.johnson
 
 

Parkinson's Prevalence Data - Caroline Rassell and Lance Lee, Parkinson's UK

Parkinson’s UK have published the results of an unprecedented study that’s provided a wealth of new detail into the condition in the UK today.
 
Eighteen million patient records were analysed uncovering the key issues facing the one hundred and sixty-six thousand people with the condition in this country and highlighting up to twenty-one thousand more with no treatment or support while they wait to be diagnosed. 
 
With the help of Caroline Rassell, CEO of Parkinson's UK and Lance Lee, the charity's Analytics and Insights Lead,  we examine the methodology behind the collection of a data set of this magnitude, how the millions of pieces of information are harmonised to reach accurate results. We also hear how patient privacy is protected when medical records are used for research of this kind and  some of the implications of the information the survey has uncovered. 
 
If you would like to read more about the research click on this link:
https://www.parkinsons.org.uk/research/research-blog/our-research/parkinsons-uk-what-do-we-know
 

Predict-PD Study - Professor Alastair Noyce, Principal Investigator

The ground-breaking Predict-PD study has been gathering valuable information from thirteen thousand volunteers for 15 years, in an effort to find ways of identifying those people most at risk of developing Parkinson’s.  We catch up with progress so far and find out how the project is continually growing and swapping information with other researchers as science moves ever closer towards the establishing the causes of the world’s fastest growing neurological disorder. 
Dr Alastair Noyce, the Principal Investigator, is Professor of Neurology and Neuroepidemiology at the Queen Mary University of London.
If you are interested in volunteering to take part or just want to find out more, you can do so using this link:
https://predictpd.com/en

Professor Suzanne Reeves, Chief Investigator TOPHAT Trial

We are delighted to be focusing this month's episode on a research project that is actively recruiting patient participants all across the UK. The investigation, based at University College London, is looking at whether a medicine currently used to treat nausea and vomiting caused by some cancer treatments, could also help people with Parkinson's and Lewy Body Dementia who experience hallucinations. 
 
Read Maria and Desmond's experience of taking part in the Top Hat trial:
Blog: https://www.parkinsons.org.uk/research/research-blog/ask-expert/research-reduce-hallucinations-desmond-and-marias-story
 
 #Link to Take Part Hub recruitment page: https://www.parkinsons.org.uk/research/top-hat-trial-licensed-drug-parkinsons-hallucination-treatment

Oral Health - Jessie Tebbutt, NIHR Doctoral Fellow in Special Care Dentistry, University of Sheffield

In this episode we're turning our attention to a long overlooked area of Parkinson's research; oral health. Despite its importance, little is known about how oral health issues affect quality of life for people living with the condition.
Jessie Tebbutt, NIHR Doctoral Clinical Fellow in Special Care Dentistry at the University of Sheffield, has been exploring the existing evidence on the oral health experiences of those with Parkinson's, and identifying key gaps in the current knowledge with a view to helping shape future research priorities. 

Mitophagy - Prof Ian Ganley, Chair of Cellular Homeostasis, University of Dundee

In this episode we delve deep into science to hear about Professor Ian Ganley's ground-breaking research in the field of mitophagy, one of the body's self cleaning mechanisms that could play a key role in the development of Parkinson's. Not only is Professor Ganley making strides forward in what we know about the process, but his team have invented a prize winning new tool that has revolutionised the pace of progress in this immensely promising area of research worldwide.
Further reading:
https://www.ppu.mrc.ac.uk/research/principal-investigator/ian-ganley
Prof. Ganley's paper on the effects of LRRK2 mutations in mitophagy:
https://elifesciences.org/articles/67604

Dr Bethany Whiteside, Senior Lecturer, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

This month the NoSPRIG Parkinson’s research podcast is taking an unusual step away from science and into the arts. We’re joined by Dr Bethany Whiteside, Senior Lecturer at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, to find out about her research into specially adapted dance for people with Parkinson’s. She has identified a huge range of benefits for people taking part in the classes, which have movements specially tailored for those with the condition, and why the benefits differ from those of exercise on its own. 
 
https://pure.rcs.ac.uk/en/persons/bethany-whiteside 
https://scottishballet.co.uk/research-and-evaluation/dance-health-research/