Scientists work together to get a better understanding of Parkinson's disease

Each day, 80 people are newly diagnosed with Parkinson's disease (PD) in the UK and one in 20 will be under the age of 40.

NeuronsProfessor Oliver Bandmann, Professor of Movement Disorders Neurology at the University of Sheffield and Consultant at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, said: "Parkinson's is not just a movement disorder but can also cause other problems such as depression and memory problems.

"It is currently relentlessly progressive and incurable. However, more and more research on PD is being carried out at the University of Sheffield, paving the way for new treatments.

"Clinician scientists and basic scientists work closely together to get a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms leading to PD and find drugs which slow down and one day hopefully arrest PD in the early stages."

He added: "Basic scientists and clinician scientists at our University benefit from excellent facilities at the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN), the Bateson Centre in the Faculty of Basic Sciences and the NIHR Clinical Research Facility at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital.

"This allows academics and clinicians to undertake research spanning from basic science and in-house drug discovery to clinical trials.

"We are currently participating in the world's largest long-term study on PD called Tracking Parkinson's. Across the UK, 3000 PD patients are being recruited into this study which is funded by the leading PD charity Parkinson's UK.

"We are also carrying out a drug screen at SITraN which has identified a very promising drug which might slow down the progression of disease."