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Major grant to help patients with Parkinson’s disease

Consultant Per Borghammer and Professor David Brooks from Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital have just received DKK 1.7 million from the Lundbeck Foundation. The grant provides hope for Parkinson's disease patients who develop dementia.

Parkinson's disease affects approximately 12 million people around the world. These people experience impaired mobility, rigidity and muscle and joint tremors. Additionally, many patients with Parkinson’s disease end up with dementia, though researchers have not yet identified what causes this.

Consultant Per Borgerhammer from Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital hopes that his research can help to find some of the causes of the development of dementia in patients with Parkinson's disease. This is the research project which has just received a grant of DKK 1.7 million from the Lundbeck Foundation.

Brain scans to map the development of dementia

The grant from the Lundbeck Foundation will be used to develop new methods for PET scans. In the project the researchers utilise a new type of PET scan which can depict what are known as tau proteins in the brain. These proteins are suspected of contributing to the development of dementia in connection with Parkinson's disease, and this is the context in which they will now be examined with the new type of PET scans.

"If there turns out to be a correlation between the amount of tau proteins in the brains of Parkinson’s disease patients and their dementia symptoms, the PET technique can in future be used to identify the patients who are at risk of developing dementia. This will be particularly important if we succeed in developing medicines that can remove the harmful proteins from the brain and in this way prevent the development of dementia in patients with Parkinson's disease," says Per Borghammer.

Per Borghammer is a medical specialist in clinical physiology and nuclear medicine. He holds a higher doctoral degree from Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital.

Further information

Consultant, PhD, DMSc Per Borghammer
Aarhus University, Department of Clinical Medicine and
Aarhus University Hospital, Department of Nuclear Medicine & PET Centre
perborgh@rm.dk
Direct tel.: +45 7846 3016
Mobile: +45 2826 1039