29 November 2007

Representatives of national Parkinson's charity to visit project which they fund

Photo Opportunity - 2 pm, Friday November 30th,
Wellcome Trust Biocentre
Dr. Gartner and representatives of Parkinson's Disease Society

Three visitors from the Parkinson's Disease Society will be visiting the College of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee to gain a greater insight into the work being done by scientists they help fund.

The charity representatives will be at the Wellcome Trust Biocentre tomorrow (Friday, 30 Nov 2007), to meet Dr. Anton Gartner. Dr. Gartner will take the visitors around his lab and present a seminar on his work in order to demonstrate to the members of the charity exactly how their grant money is being spent.

This is part of the College of Life Sciences programme to provide funding bodies, charities and the general public with more information on the impact our scientific work has on the lives of those affected by degenerative diseases.

The most important feature of Parkinson's is the continual death of dopamine-producing nerve cells as the disease develops. However it is difficult to determine what is happening to nerve cells within the brain of a person with Parkinson's, and the events leading up to damage to the cells are not well understood. Unravelling them will improve our knowledge of the condition and may ultimately lead to the development of new drug therapies.

The short-term goals of Dr Gartner's research are to understand how the proteins work in the nerve cell and to see how they interact with other molecules. In the longer term, the findings will help to understand whether they may be suitable drug targets for the treatment of Parkinson's.

The Parkinson's Disease Society has awarded £151,091 over 36 months for Dr Anton Gartner's project.

For media enquiries contact:
Roddy Isles
Head, Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384910
E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk