The CMCM is partnering with the University of Luxembourg to accelerate research on Parkinson's disease (PD) and epilepsy. Since 2012, the University of Luxembourg has been very active in the field of neurodegenerative diseases thanks to its biomedical research centre, the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB).
With its donation, the CMCM is supporting a three-year project that will study the dynamics of nerve cells in the brains of patients suffering from PD and epilepsy. “With certain neurodegenerative diseases, nerve cells begin to pulse synchronously in a very specific region of the brain,” explains Professor Alexander Skupin, who is leading the project. His team is investigating the reasons behind this behaviour and aims to develop mathematical models to better understand how these nerve cells make the “critical transition” from a healthy to a diseased state.
With this knowledge of the cellular causes of PD, the researchers hope to open up new avenues for developing therapies for patients with epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease. This research project will be co-funded by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR).