You’re invited: The Parkinson's UK West of Scotland Research Interest Group hosts Professor Tilo Kunath, from the University of Edinburgh - ‘Finding new drugs for Parkinson’s using neurons produced from stem cells' When: Thursday 27 March 2025, 2.30 - 3.30pm Where: Online via Zoom What: A talk, Q&A, and virtual tour of the lab Interested in attending? Please register by entering your name and email address below. About the talk: Parkinson’s is a complex condition with numerous neuronal systems affected. One of the major cell types that is progressively lost are the dopamine-producing nerves of the substantia nigra. The reasons why these particular neurons are lost is not completely known, but the protein alpha-synuclein has been implicated in playing a major role. Due to advances in stem cell technology over the last 20 years, it is now possible to produce unlimited amounts of dopamine-producing nerves from human pluripotent stem cells in the laboratory. These neurons can be used for pre-clinical drug testing to find novel treatments for Parkinson’s. We have created a model of Parkinson’s in a dish, and testing numerous drugs for their ability to reduce Parkinson’s alpha-synuclein pathology. Tilo will give an update on how the drug-testing is performed and describe one of the top-performing candidate drugs. After his talk and Q&A, Professor Kunath will take us on a virtual tour of his laboratory. We hope you'll join us for this event! If you have any questions about this event, please contact Liz Nash, Research Support Network Lead, on lnash@parkinsons.org.uk or 0207 963 9398. Please click the button below to register.