Author: eilis

Welcome to our new President and Board Members!

eilis Uncategorized
Welcome to our new President and Board Members!

At the most recent NECTAR Board Meeting at the NECTAR2018 meeting in Paris, NECTAR welcomed its new President Dr Agnete Kirkeby from Copenhagen University. We also welcomed three new NECTAR Board members, Dr Romina Aron-Badin from CEA Paris, Dr Stefano Pluchino from the University of Cambridge and Dr Rebecca Matsas from Hellenic Pasteur Institute. Welcome everyone and wishing you the very best in your new role Agnete!

Update on Tom Isaacs EJN Special Issue

eilis Uncategorized
Update on Tom Isaacs EJN Special Issue

We are delighted to let you know that several articles for the European Journal of Neuroscience, NECTAR and the Cure Parkinson’s Trust Special Issue dedicated to Tom Isaacs have now been published (online ahead of print) and many more are in various stages of review. Those published include:

  1. ***NEW*** “Genetically engineered animal models of Parkinson’s disease: from worm to rodent” by Ludivine Breger and Marie-Thérèse Fuzzati-Armentero.
  2. ***NEW*** “In Memory of Tom Isaacs: The Epitomical Mover and Shaker” by Lyndsey Isaacs, Roger Barker and Eilís Dowd.
  3. ***NEW*** “Immune system responses in Parkinson’s Disease: early and dynamic” by Malú Tansey and Marina Romero-Ramos.
  4. ***NEW*** “The Prodromes of Parkinson’s disease” by Richard Rees, Alastair Noyce and Anette Schrag.
  5. ***NEW*** “Mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress in induced pluripotent stem cell models of Parkinson’s disease” by Anindita Bose and M. Flint Beal.
  6. ***NEW*** “Engineering synucleinopathy‐resistant human dopaminergic neurons by CRISPR‐mediated deletion of the SNCA gene” by Tilo Kunath and colleagues.
  7. ***NEW*** “Non-hypoxic pharmacological stabilisation of Hypoxia Inducible Factor 1α: effects on dopaminergic differentiation of human neural stem cells” by Morten Meyer and colleagues.
  8. “The Power of the Parkinson’s Patient According to Tom Isaacs: A Call to Action” by Soania Mathur.
  9. “The Linked Clinical Trials Initiative (LCT) for Parkinson’s disease” by Patrik Brundin and Richard Wyse.
  10. “The clinical heterogeneity of Parkinson’s disease and its therapeutic implications” by Julia Greenland, Caroline Williams‐Gray and Roger A. Barker.
  11. “Post hoc analysis of the Exenatide-PD trial – factors that predict response” by Tom Foltynie and colleagues.
  12. “Cell-based therapy for Parkinson’s disease: A journey through decades toward the light side of the Force” by Malin Parmar, Olof Torper and Janelle Drouin‐Ouellet.
  13. “The Unlikely Partnership Between LRRK2 and α-Synuclein in Parkinson’s Disease” by Andrew West, Emmanuel Brouillet and colleagues.
  14. “Viewpoint: Developing drugs for levodopa-induced dyskinesia in PD: Lessons learnt, what does the future hold?” by Susan Fox and Jonathan Brotchie.
  15. “Primary tissue for cellular brain repair in Parkinson’s disease: Promise, problems and the potential of biomaterials” by  Niamh Moriarty, Clare Parish and Eilís Dowd.
  16. “L-DOPA for Parkinson’s disease – a bittersweet pill” by Emma Lane.
  17. “Trophic factors for Parkinson’s disease: Where are we and where do we go from here?” by Gesine Paul and Aideen Sullivan.
  18. “Mitral cells and the glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor: The sweet smell of success?” by Enrico Bagnoli and Una Fitzgerald.
  19. “Encapsulation of young donor age dopaminergic grafts in a GDNF-loaded collagen hydrogel further increases their survival, reinnervation, and functional efficacy after intrastriatal transplantation in hemi-Parkinsonian rats” by Eilís Dowd and colleagues.

Watch this space for new articles as they appear!

CARE travel bursaries for NECTAR2018

eilis Uncategorized
CARE travel bursaries for NECTAR2018

The Campaign for Alzheimer’s Research in Europe (CARE) has offered to sponsor travel bursaries for UK or Irish students or postdocs to attend the 2018 NECTAR meeting, to be held 6-7 December 2018 in Paris.

Applications will be competitive and are open to PhD students and post-docs (but not salaried faculty) from any NECTAR member laboratories within the UK and Ireland, and will be for a max of £350 (UK) or €400 (Ireland) each. The applicant must submit an abstract for a data-blitz or invited oral presentation at the meeting. The subject may be in any area of neurorestoration or transplantation for neurodegenerative disease, although applications that focus on Alzheimer’s disease and dementia are particularly welcomed.

Applications should be submitted by email to alzheimerscare1@outlook.com and comprise the following attachments:

  1. a 1-page CV;
  2. a copy of the abstract;
  3. a statement of estimated costs claimed, which may cover, travel, registration and accommodation, along with a declaration that these costs cannot be met from any other source;
  4. a supporting letter from the head of laboratory.

The deadline for applications is 12 noon GMT Monday 5 November (following closure of the abstract and early registration deadline), and CARE will seek to notify decisions within 7 days following.

Dr Agnete Kirkeby announced as incoming NECTAR President

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Network of European CNS Transplantation and Restoration (NECTAR)

We are delighted to announce that the incoming NECTAR President is Dr Agnete Kirkeby from the University of Copenhagen. Dr Kirekeby will take over the role at the NECTAR2018 meeting in Paris in December. Congratulations to Agnete and we wish her the very best in her new role!

Agnete performed part her graduate research project partly at the pharmaceutical company H. Lundbeck and partly with the field pioneer Lorenz Studer at the Sloan Kettering Institute (New York). In 2009 she went on to perform her postdoc in the group of Malin Parmar at Lund University (Sweden) where she over the years built up a unique expertise in using human pluripotent stem cells for production of subtype-specific neural cells and developing protocols for accurate patterning of neural cells towards different regional fates (Kirkeby et al., Cell Reports 2012). This work has led to the development of a promising stem cell treatment for Parkinson’s Disease (PD) (Grealish et al., Cell Stem Cell 2014, Grealish et al. Stem Cell Reports 2015), which is currently in translation to the clinic in collaboration with Prof. Malin Parmar and Prof. Roger Barker (Kirkeby et al., Cell Stem Cell 2017, Nolbrant et al., Nature Protocols 2017, Kirkeby et al., Prog. Brain Research 2017). Agnete started her own group in 2015 at Lund University and has built up her own line of research by combining stem cell patterning protocols with microfluidic techniques to produce in vitro 3D models of the human developing brain. Based on a junior group leader start-up package from the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Biology (DanStem), she moved her group to the University of Copenhagen in the beginning of 2017.

Site images

eilis Uncategorized
Site images

Thanks to Agnete Kirkeby (Copenhagen), Lachlan Thompson (Melbourne) and Tilo Kunath (Edinburgh) for the fantastic images for the site.

If you have any images that would be suitable to use, please feel free to send them into the current NECTAR President (Eilís Dowd).

 

Site Twitter feeds

eilis Uncategorized
Site Twitter feeds

Thanks to Emma Yhnell from Cardiff and Simon Stott from Cambridge for allowing us to feature their vibrant and dynamic Twitter feeds on our NECTAR website.

Emma is a Huntington’s disease researcher who has been actively involved in public engagement initiatives for many years. Simon is a Parkinson’s disease researcher who runs the informative “Science of Parkinson’s” website which provides plain English descriptions of the most up-to-date research being completed in Parkinson’s disease.

If you have a Twitter feed that you would like to see featured on this website, please let the current NECTAR President (Eilís Dowd) know.