About us
This Nordic Center of Excellence gathers 12 prominent research groups
from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. We collaborate closely and
use a variety of different research techniques at the forefront of
modern science to try to understand what Alzheimer's disease (AD),
Parkinson's disease (PD) and Huntington's disease (HD) have in common
and if they can be prevented with new treatments.
Diseases affecting the brain and spinal cord are important causes of
both disability and early death. Due to high costs for treatment, care
and lost working years, they also represent a major financial burden to
society. These diseases include Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's
disease (PD), Huntington's disease (HD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
(ALS) and Creutzfeld-Jacob disease. In general, current treatments are
unsatisfactory. An important reason for this is that the mechanisms
that cause the diseases at the levels of cells and molecules are
unknown. Even though the patients affected by these different diseases
clearly do not have identical symptoms, scientists now know that there
are important similarities in the changes that occur in the nerve cells
as they gradually change their functions and eventually die.
As a new approach for synergy creation and integration of different
high-level Nordic laboratories, our NCoE is running a strong scientific
training program that brings together students, post-docs and
supervisors from the Nordic countries. It includes specialized
technical workshops where research methods and reagents are shared
between the groups as well as other workshops devoted to specific
general skills needed as a scientist. Technical platforms within the
NCoE are freely available to all partners.
In summary, the primary missions of the NCoE is:
- unravel the sequences of events that lead to slow neurodegeneration.
- identify new therapeutic targets.
- create a basis for development of new pharmacological therapies.
- train
young scientists and mold them into a future generation of excellent
Nordic research leaders in the area of molecular mechanisms of
neurodegeneration.
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