On the evening of Monday 22 May RSC Belgium welcomed Professor David Dexter, Director of Research at Parkinson’s UK to talk to us about ‘Therapeutic strategies for preventing Parkinson's Disease’. The event was held at the British School of Brussels in Tervuren.
Parkinson's disease is the fastest growing neurodegenerative condition with some 10 million people affected worldwide. Classically, Parkinson's is defined by the presence of motor symptoms such as tremor, limb stiffness and slowness of movement but there are many other non-motor symptoms, such as depression, anxiety, cognitive decline which greatly impact on quality of life. Whilst there are drugs which treat the motor features of Parkinson's, these drugs lose effectiveness with time, are associated with significant side effects and importantly they cannot slow the progression of the condition.
Over the last 20 years there has been a revolution in our understanding of what causes Parkinson's and this has translated into a growing pipeline of novel therapeutic approaches to slow/stop the condition. In addition, biomarkers have recently been discovered that can accurately predict who will develop Parkinson's and prevention trials are on the horizon.
Professor Dexter's talk covered the role of biomarkers for early detection and what treatment strategies are being trialled in Parkinson's.
Biography
Professor Dexter joined Parkinson’s UK as Associate Research Director, overseeing scientific programmes, in March 2017. In April 2023 David was promoted to Director of Research at Parkinson’s UK. As Director, he is responsible for the charities grants programmes, strategic partnerships, research communications and patient involvement programmes. He is also the biology lead for Parkinson’s Virtual Biotech, the drug discovery arm of Parkinson’s UK. David has 38 years research experience in Parkinson’s disease research, 23 years of which was spent at Imperial College London where he was Professor of Neuropharmacology and Deputy Head of The Division of Brain Sciences.
YouTube Video
Professor Dexter's talk was recorded and can be found on our dedicated Youtube channel or as an embedded video below. Enjoy!
