mrc

Deep brain stimulation is a growing technique used in the treatment of tremor and dystonia and associated neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. It requires the stimulation of specific neural centres within the brain which must be placed accurately to have therapeutic effect and avoid potentially damage side effects. Methods are required to minimize the amount of surgery required in deep brain stimulation procedures and improve the therapeutic efficacy of the technique. MRC Scientists have developed a novel patented technique to allow unambiguous identification of neural centres in one surgical step. Opportunity 284

The kinase LRRK2 is important in Parkinson’s Disease research and drug discovery. Scientists at the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit have developed assays which are useful in researching the activity and function of LRRK2, and in screening for LRRK2 inhibitors. Opportunity 452

Amiloride, a known drug used for the treatment of hypertension for forty years, has been shown to decrease the progress of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) disease progression in mice. It appears that amiloride resolves the neurodegenerative phase of MS, whereas existing drugs only target the initial inflammatory phase. Opportunity 277

There is a major need for spinal injury therapeutics, as adult nervous tissue regenerates only poorly or not at all following injury or disease. This invention provides a peptide therapeutic approach for the treatment of spinal cord injury by inhibiting Nogo signalling to promote neurite outgrowth and regeneration of the CNS by extracellular phosphorylation of the Nogo receptor. Opportunity 270