About
This project sets out to study the chemical reactions in the brains of Parkinson's disease patients. We want to learn if there are differences in these chemical reactions between Parkinson's disease patients and healthy people, and if so, if we can group together Parkinson's disease patients with more similar chemical reactions. We want to see what the characteristics are for each group - are there specific illnesses, cognitive function test results, and brain sizes, and are there specific factors in their DNA, RNA, blood, and urine?
Learning about the different chemical reactions in each group of Parkinson's disease patients helps us choose the correct treatment for each group. We will use computers to see the differences between each group and healthy people, and try to suggest drugs or other interventions which could make these patients' chemical reactions closer to the normal.
This project will hopefully provide more ideas of a treatment for Parkinson's disease to try in a clinical trial. Currently, many studies are to do with levadopa, which is considered the gold standard in Parkinson's disease treatment, but we know that Parkinson's disease patients can response very differently to levadopa. This project will take up to two years to complete.