Representatives of Parkinson's UK and the J. Macdonald Menzies Charitable Trust, as well as Parkinson's patients, visited the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit (MRC-PPU) on May 3rd to hear about exciting research developments on Parkinson's disease at the MRC-PPU. Over the last few years the MRC-PPU have received generous funding from Parkinson's UK to support PhD student Chandana Kondapalli (jointly supervised by Miratul Muqit and Dario Alessi) and more recently the J. Macdonald Menzies Charitable Trust to support Agne Kazlauskaite (supervised by Dario Alessi).
The visitors had an opportunity to hear Chandana and Agne present their latest research findings on the PINK1 and parkin proteins whose genes are mutated in patients with familial Parkinsonism. The presentations were interspersed with many probing questions and helpful suggestions from the visiting delegation. This was followed by a lively discussion on future directions of research. The visit ended with a tour of the labs in which the visitors were able to see firsthand the state-of-the-art facilities housed within the MRC-PPU, including the new mass spectrometry suite.
The event was co-hosted with Anton Gartner from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Gene Regulation and Expression whose group uses the model organism C. elegans to better understand Parkinson's.
The visitors had an opportunity to hear Chandana and Agne present their latest research findings on the PINK1 and parkin proteins whose genes are mutated in patients with familial Parkinsonism. The presentations were interspersed with many probing questions and helpful suggestions from the visiting delegation. This was followed by a lively discussion on future directions of research. The visit ended with a tour of the labs in which the visitors were able to see firsthand the state-of-the-art facilities housed within the MRC-PPU, including the new mass spectrometry suite.
The event was co-hosted with Anton Gartner from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Gene Regulation and Expression whose group uses the model organism C. elegans to better understand Parkinson's.