Parkinson’s UK prestigious Senior Research Fellowship Award

A postdoctoral scientist from the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN) is awarded a prestigious Senior Research Fellowship by Parkinson’s UK.

Dr Heather Mortiboys is the sole recipient of this year’s Senior Research Fellowship from Parkinson’s UK. Heather has worked in the field of Parkinson’s Disease for the past 12 years beginning her research career at the Max Planck Institute for Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany after which she moved to the University of Sheffield to continue her work investigating mitochondrial health in Parkinson’s Disease. Parkinson’s Disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease with the most striking symptoms being that of movement impairment. Parkinson’s UK is a charity which supports people with Parkinson’s Disease and their carers as well as raising money in order to support valuable research aimed at finding a cure for the condition (www.parkinsons.org.uk).

Heather’s project focuses on a drug re-purposing approach which will specifically design a library of drugs which are licensed and safe to use in man as well as being able to penetrate the blood brain barrier and get to the nerve cells which die in Parkinson’s Disease. After this in silico step Heather will then use patient cells to screen these drugs for a rescue effect on two of the main pathogenic mechanisms leading to cell death in Parkinson’s Disease; mitochondrial and lysosomal function. Heather will be based at the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN)using the state of the art drug screening facility, she will work closely with Prof. Pamela Shaw, Director of SITraN and Dr Oliver Bandmann. Heather said “Bringing new treatments to patients with Parkinson’s Disease is why I wanted to become a scientist. It is very exciting to be able to carry out a novel drug screen which has a high chance of being able to do this and importantly this is funded by money raised by patients and carers themselves. I feel very honoured to have awarded this Fellowship by Parkinson’s UK.”