Cambridge researchers developing brain implants for treating Parkinson’s disease

sc604 — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 10:33:21 +0000

As part of a £69 million funding programme supported by the Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA), Professor George Malliaras from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering will co-lead a project that uses small clusters of brain cells called midbrain organoids to develop a new type of brain implant, which will be tested in animal models of Parkinson’s disease.

̽��ֱ��project led by Malliaras and Professor Roger Barker from the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, which involves colleagues from the ̽��ֱ�� of Oxford, the ̽��ֱ�� of Lund and BIOS Health, is one of 18 projects funded by ARIA as part of its Precision Neurotechnologies programme, which is supporting research teams across academia, non-profit R&D organisations, and startups dedicated to advancing brain-computer interface technologies.

̽��ֱ��programme will direct £69 million over four years to unlock new methods for interfacing with the human brain at the neural circuit level, to treat many of the most complex neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders, from Alzheimer’s to epilepsy to depression.

By addressing bottlenecks in funding and the lack of precision offered by current approaches, the outputs of this programme will pave the way for addressing a much broader range of conditions than ever before, significantly reducing the social and economic impact of brain disorders across the UK.

Parkinson’s disease occurs when the brain cells that make dopamine (a chemical that helps control movement) die off, causing movement problems and other symptoms. Current treatments, like dopamine-based drugs, work well early on, but can cause serious side effects over time.

In the UK, 130,000 people have Parkinson’s disease, and it costs affected families about £16,000 per year on average – more than £2 billion in the UK annually. As more people age, the number of cases will grow, and new treatments are urgently needed.

One idea is to replace the lost dopamine cells by transplanting new ones into the brain. But these cells need to connect properly to the brain’s network to fix the problem, and current methods don’t fully achieve that.

In the ARIA-funded project, Malliaras and his colleagues are working on a new approach using small clusters of brain cells called midbrain organoids. These will be placed in the right part of the brain in an animal model of Parkinson’s disease. They’ll also use advanced materials and electrical stimulation to help the new cells connect and rebuild the damaged pathways.

“Our ultimate goal is to create precise brain therapies that can restore normal brain function in people with Parkinson’s,” said Malliaras.

“To date, there’s been little serious investment into methodologies that interface precisely with the human brain, beyond ‘brute force’ approaches or highly invasive implants,” said ARIA Programme Director Jacques Carolan. “We’re showing that it’s possible to develop elegant means of understanding, identifying, and treating many of the most complex and devastating brain disorders. Ultimately, this could deliver transformative impact for people with lived experiences of brain disorders.”

Other teams funded by the programme include one at Imperial College London who is developing an entirely new class of biohybridised technology focused on engineering transplanted neurons with bioelectric components. A Glasgow-led team will build advanced neural robots for closed-loop neuromodulation, specifically targeting epilepsy treatment, while London-based Navira will develop a technology for delivering gene therapies across the blood-brain barrier, a crucial step towards developing safer and more effective treatments.

Adapted from an ARIA media release.

Cambridge researchers are developing implants that could help repair the brain pathways damaged by Parkinson’s disease.

Our ultimate goal is to create precise brain therapies that can restore normal brain function in people with Parkinson’s

George Malliaras

Science Photo Library via Getty Images

Substantia nigra in the human brain, illustration

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Cambridge researchers announced as programme directors for new UK funding agency

cjb250 — Wed, 13 Sep 2023 11:23:03 +0000

ARIA is a government-funded agency that aims to unlock scientific and technological breakthroughs that could benefit everyone. Many of society’s most important advances have stemmed from those with the foresight to pursue new capabilities that most believed to be unattainable. ARIA aims to empower scientists and engineers with the resources and freedom to pursue those breakthroughs.

̽��ֱ��new programme directors include:

Gemma Bale

Gemma is the Gianna Angelopoulos Assistant Professor in Medical Therapeutics and Head of the Neuro Optics Lab at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. Her work focuses on developing non-invasive brain monitoring in real-world environments where traditional brain monitoring isn’t usually possible.

Sarah Bohndiek

Sarah is a Professor of Biomedical Physics at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, jointly appointed in the Department of Physics and the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute. Sarah leads an interdisciplinary team that uses optical imaging technology to monitor in situ tumour evolution and support earlier cancer detection.

Angie Burnett

Angie is a plant biologist, focused on investigating the responses of crop plants to environmental stresses, such as drought and extreme temperature. Angie worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Brookhaven National Laboratory and a Consultant at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, before becoming a Research Associate at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

Writing on the ARIA website, Professor Bohndiek and Dr Bale said: “We’re both passionate about the future health of our planet and the people on it. Working in the health tech space, we have created new tools to allow us to safely see inside humans in new ways using light. We believe that there are emerging optical technologies at the edge of the possible, which will disrupt the current landscape.

“As co-PDs, we’ll look to accelerate these technologies, initially by exploring ideas around non-invasive optical mapping and sensing across a range of applications – from monitoring human health to climate change.”

Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “ ̽��ֱ��launch of ARIA, a brand new funding organisation, is an important moment for UK research and innovation. It’s a remarkable reflection of the quality of Cambridge research that three of the eight new programme directors stem from our ̽��ֱ��, including two current academics. We wish them luck in this exciting new endeavour.”

ARIA, the UK’s new R&D funding agency, has announced its line-up of new programme directors – and three of them are current or former researchers from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

It’s a remarkable reflection of the quality of Cambridge research that three of the eight new programme directors stem from our ̽��ֱ��

Anne Ferguson-Smith

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - ARIA

Cambridge researchers developing brain implants for treating Parkinson’s disease

Cambridge researchers announced as programme directors for new UK funding agency

Gemma Bale

Sarah Bohndiek

Angie Burnett