Parkinson’s is the fastest-growing neurological disease in the world and affects 127,000 people in the UK. Thanks to your support, we are funding research into new approaches to slow down, stop or even reverse its progression.
Here in Bristol, a passionate team of experts is dedicated to finding more about the disease. With your help, we are supporting two projects to help sufferers live longer and with a better quality of life.
The research already funded has made great strides into fighting this disease, yet there is still so much you can do. With your help, we can continue to support these vital research projects to give hope to people with Parkinson’s for years to come.
Dr Alan Whone
The Bristol Movement Neuroscience Group, based at our Bristol Brain Centre in Southmead, is led by Dr Whone, a Consultant Senior Lecturer in Movement Disorders Neurology at the University of Bristol and Honorary Consultant Neurologist at Southmead Hospital.
As well leading the regional Movement Disorders clinical service, Dr Whone has more than 15 years of research experience in the field. His research interests aim to address unmet symptom needs, to help people with Parkinson’s live better today and to develop new disease-slowing or disease-reversing therapies.
Dr Michal Rolinski
Dr Rolinski is a National Institute of Health Research Academic Clinical Lecturer and an Honorary Specialist Registrar in Neurology. Dr Rolinski’s research aims to develop tests that allow the diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease in its earliest stages, even before the core symptoms of slowness, stiffness or tremor emerge. Diagnosis at this stage, known as prodromal Parkinson’s, allows treatment to start before too much irreversible damage has been done.
By giving to our local NHS researchers today, you’ll be working alongside a whole host of national and international partners, including the University of Bristol, the University of Cardiff, the University of British Columbia in Canada and Professor Walter Maetzler, from the Center of Neurology of the University Hospital of Tuebingen in Germany.
Thanks to a generous donation by the Jane Telling Fund, we have already been able to support research projects that use advanced computer analysis method called machine learning – or Artificial Intelligence (AI). By harnessing the power of AI, we can track changes in Parkinson’s over time, which will allow clinicians to pick up very subtle abnormalities in movement that may suggest the earliest stages of Parkinson’s disease. With your help, we can build on this research to further improve the lives of those suffering with the disease.
