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Full NameProfessor Aideen Sullivan
Anatomy and Neuroscience
University College Cork
Webpage:publish.ucc.ie
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- neuroscience and mental health
- Medicine
- Neurology
- Neurophysiology
- Neuropsychiatry
Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder, affecting ~2% of people aged over 65. Since PD is an age-related disorder, its incidence is steadily escalating, due to increases in life-expectancy. Current treatments are successful in alleviating symptoms in the short-term but their long-term use is associated with significant side effects, and they have no effect to slow down the disease progression.
The immediate future holds a significant challenge for researchers to develop novel treatments for PD, which will be efficacious and safe for long-term use by patients. Such developments will be driven by advances in the understanding of neuropathology of PD as well as the development, maintenance and health of dopamine neurons, the cells that degenerate in PD. My research programme aims to address these challenges through a coherently-linked program focused on the following key thematic areas, using in vitro and in vivo models:
- Optimisation of neuroprotective therapies by the use of viral vectors to achieve long-term and targeted delivery of dopaminergic neurotrophic factors to the nigrostriatal system.
- Elucidation of the molecular mechanisms mediating the protective effects of neurotrophic factors, to facilitate the development of drugs for PD which target these signalling pathways.
- Discovery of biomarkers for PD, to enable earlier diagnosis and personalised medicine.
- Investigation of the mechanisms of neuronal cell degeneration in PD, using new animal models which closely mimic the neuropathology which occurs in this disease.
- Characterisation of the mechanisms of dopaminergic neuronal development and survival, to enhance the development of stem cell-based treatments for PD.
- Investigation of the role of epigenetic mechanisms in the neurodegenerative pathomechanics of PD.