Research
Background - Neurodegeneration
Diseases affecting the brain and spinal cord are important causes of both disability and early death. These diseases include Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD) and Huntington's disease (HD). They cause immense suffering those afflicted and also affect the lives of family and friends of the patients. The costs for treatment, care and lost working years are high. As a result the diseases are a major financial burden to society. Current treatment options are very unsatisfactory.
An important reason for the lack of good therapy is that most molecular mechanisms responsible for these diseases remain elusive. Patients affected by different degenerative diseases of the nervous system clearly do not have identical symptoms. Nevertheless we 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. The aim of this Nordic Center of Excellence is to deepen our understanding of molecular mechanisms of neurodegene-rative diseases and develop new treatments.
This Nordic Center of Excellence gathers 12 prominent research
groups from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. They will collaborate
and use a variety of different research techniques at the forefront of
modern science to try to understand what three of these diseases (AD,
PD and HD) have in common and if they can be prevented with new
treatments.
Read more about the diseases here: