The laboratories of Professor Roger Barker, Professor James B. Rowe and Dr Dennis Chan work together to determine and better understand the mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative disease and dementia.  They discover how diseases such as dementia, Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease affect critical neural networks, cognitive systems and clinical features. Their innovative approach to “Systems and Restorative Neurology (SyReN)” is used to develop new treatments, translating basic science to novel therapies, and evaluating the impact on symptoms and the course of disease.

We work in close partnership with patients and carers, combining specialist services for NHS patients with internationally recognized research programs into the causes, mechanisms and treatments of disease. Examples of our work include:

Dementia and Ageing:

• The Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre supports an extensive range of research into the causes and mechanisms of Dementia, including our work on new PET ligands for different dementias, the neural basis of cognitive impairment, novel biomarkers for clinical trials and symptomatic treatments.
• The PIPPIN (Pick’s disease and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, prevalence and incidence) study of Frontotemporal dementia
• Action control and learning at the Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience (see Cam-CAN)
• In Decision making and dementia we investigate the impact of dementia on how the brain makes decisions, including the use of decision networks as sensitive predictors of dementia.
• NIMROD study of neuroinflammation in Dementia (see also the UK Clinical Research Network Portfolio)

The Cambridge Centre for Frontotemporal Dementia and Related Disorders

• The CCFTD provides world class care for patients and families combined with cutting edge research towards better diagnosis and effective treatments.

Parkinson’s disease:

• The PICNICS and ICICLE-PD studies of Parkinson’s disease
• The Prosavin Gene therapy trial in Parkinson’s disease
• TransEURO stem cell transplantation trial

Huntington’s disease:

• • • The Enroll-HD prospective registry study in Huntington’s disease
    • The PREDICT-HD study looking for the earliest detectable changes in premanifest Huntington’s disease