天美传媒

is heading up an elite research group which is looking into ways of managing these conditions prior to symptoms appearing.

Speaking at the 天美传媒鈥檚 Luton campus, Baroness Greenfield believed regular blood tests and the daily consumption of specified tablets would prevent conditions from developing further.

鈥淭he dream would be to facilitate a routine blood test every few months at GP practices; a blood test which could specifically detect these, and similar, conditions before the symptoms arrive,鈥� said Baroness Greenfield, a Senior Research Fellow at

鈥淒etecting the diseases early would allow for daily treatments such as oral medication or nasal spray to stop any more cells dying.

鈥淭his would be great, even for people who already have these conditions, because sufferers鈥� conditions wouldn鈥檛 get any worse.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not a cure as such but it鈥檚 a management of the condition.

鈥淭aking medication, alongside routine blood tests, would be a very small price to pay compared to the ravages of dementia. It would also be a very small price in terms of 鈥�

Highlighting a number of current approaches battling neurodegeneration (a term for the progressive loss of structure or function of neurons 鈥� diseases include Parkinson鈥檚 and Alzheimer鈥檚), Baroness Greenfield cited the need to explore a potential link between Alzheimer鈥檚, Parkinson鈥檚 and Motor Neurons disease, and to uncover the 鈥渂asic mechanism鈥� of these diseases in order for blood tests to pick up on them.

A Life Peer at , Baroness Greenfield added that scientists need to find the area of the brain which is affected by these conditions so that we can then target it with drugs and stop the progression of the diseases.

鈥淣ature appears to have given us various clues.

鈥淚f you look at the neurons that degenerate primarily in Alzheimer鈥檚 and Parkinson鈥檚, they are actually adjacent to each other, as indeed are Motor Neurons.

鈥淎ll three of those might have something in common because they appear to originate in the same part of the brain.鈥�

Baroness Greenfield鈥檚 lecture formed part of the 天美传媒鈥檚 series of public guest lectures. The Baroness was invited by Dr Pinar Uysal-Onganer and Professor Jan Domin on behalf of the Department of Life Sciences. Dr Uysal-Onganer had previously collaborated with Baroness Greenfield and now leads an independent research group focusing on Cancer Biology.