Topic description and stories

Image of “amyloid fibrils”; thread-like structures which form after the protein alpha-synuclein aggregates. Plaques (protein deposits) consisting of this protein have been found in the brains of Parkinson ’s Disease patients and linked to disease.

Tiny changes in Parkinson’s protein can have “dramatic” impact on processes that lead to the disease

30 Aug 2016

Specific mutations in the protein associated with Parkinson’s Disease, in which just one of its 140 building blocks is altered, can make a dramatic...

Read more
Artist’s rendering of protein fibrils (in blue) and healthy proteins from computer simulations

Slow, slow, quick quick, slow: Scientists discover how proteins in the brain build up rapidly in Alzheimer’s disease

18 Jul 2016

Cambridge researchers have identified – and shown that it may be possible to control – the mechanism that leads to the rapid build-up of the disease-...

Read more

Researchers identify when Parkinson’s proteins become toxic to brain cells

14 Mar 2016

Observation of the point at which proteins associated with Parkinson’s disease become toxic to brain cells could help identify how and why people...

Read more

The amazing axon adventure

05 Feb 2016

How does the brain make connections, and how does it maintain them? Cambridge neuroscientists and mathematicians are using a variety of techniques to...

Read more

Cambridge's Chemistry of Health programme awarded £17 million in funding

25 Mar 2015

New funding will support fundamental research into the molecular processes underlying human disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases...

Read more
Detail of an atomic force microscopy image which shows amyloid fibrils of alpha-synuclein grown out of synthetic lipid vesicles

Protein threshold linked to Parkinson’s Disease

02 Feb 2015

Excess quantities of a specific protein in the brain dramatically increase the chances of so-called “nucleation events” that could eventually result...

Read more

Taking a shot

Taking a shot at Parkinson’s

15 Oct 2014

Just one shot of dopamine cells derived from stem cells could be enough to reverse many of the features of Parkinson’s disease for decades – and the...

Read more

Functional nerve cells from skin cells

22 May 2014

Research will make the study of diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s easier, and could lead to personalised therapies for a variety of...

Read more
Inside

New headway in battle against neurodegenerative diseases

15 May 2014

Conditions which may accelerate the spread of Parkinson’s disease, and a potential means of enhancing naturally-occurring defences against...

Read more

Genetic mutations linked to Parkinson’s disease

12 Aug 2013

Mutations might play a key role in the death of brain cells.

Read more
Marking Parkinson's

Physical sciences illuminate neurodegenerative diseases

28 May 2012

What do physicists, chemists, mathematicians and biologists have in common? One of the answers at Cambridge is a shared interest in unravelling the...

Read more
Pensive parent

Search and rescue: scientists identify a novel therapy with potential for treating Parkinson’s disease

22 Dec 2011

A collaboration between virologists and neuroscientists at Cambridge University has demonstrated how viruses that cross the blood/brain barrier could...

Read more

Pages