Research summary

Co-applicant and Clinical Theme Lead:

‘Understanding the early pathological pathways to Parkinson’s disease’, Parkinson’s UK Monument Discovery Award, awarded September 2009. The Oxford Parkinson’s Disease Centre applied for this £5 million Discovery Award among national competition in July 2009. This multi-disciplinary project brings together scientists from Oxford University with international expertise in genomics; the development, analysis and utilisation of animal models using the tools of molecular genetics, neuropathology and neuropharmacology; and the analysis of biomarkers including a proteomics study and novel MRI paradigms in a large clinical cohort of 1500 people with Parkinson’s disease. Dr Michele Hu leads the clinical theme  in establishing a cohort of early Parkinson’s disease patients recruited from a population base across the Thames Valley, and followed longitudinally over 5 years to develop and validate early PD biomarkers. So far, 450 Parkinson’s and 100 control subjects have been recruited to this study.

Other Research Activities:

Dr Michele Hu is currently working with Dr Chrystalina Antoniades and Professor Chris Kennard at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Oxford University to pilot and develop eye movement saccadometry and hand tapping measurements in early and premotor Parkinson’s patients. She is research director for Parkinson’s disease in the Thames Valley Dementias and Neurodegenerative Disease Research Network (DeNDRoN) and a member of the national DeNDRoN Parkinson’s Clinical Study Group, which aims to promote high quality research in neurodegenerative disorders.

Dr Michele Hu is a Consultant Neurologist at the Milton Keynes and the John Radcliffe Oxford Hospitals, and Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer in Neurology at the University of Oxford.

After obtaining her medical degree from the University of London in 1993, Michele’s interest in Parkinson’s disease started in 1998 when she was awarded an Action Research Training Fellowship to study brain function in Parkinson’s disease patients using brain imaging techniques. In 2001 she was awarded her PhD based on this work, and went on to train in Parkinson’s disease and movement disorders at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Royal Free Hospital and King’s College Hospital, London.

Since commencing her consultant appointment in 2005, Michele has set up a clinical Parkinson’s disease and movement disorders service in Milton Keynes Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. In 2008 she was appointed member of the Parkinson’s Disease Clinical Study Group of the National Dementias and Neurodegenerative Disorders Network (DeNDRoN) and is NIHR Thames Valley Research Director for Parkinson’s disease. She is a member of the Oxford Parkinson’s Disease Centre and leads the Clinical Theme for the recently awarded £5 million Monument Discovery Award funded by the Parkinson’s UK to understand the early pathological pathways in PD.

Collaborators

• Dr Richard Wade-Martins , Oxford Parkinson's Disease Centre (OPDC)
• Prof Kevin Talbot , (OPDC)
• Dr Clare Makay , FMRIB/OPDC
• Prof Yoav Ben-Shiomo , University of Bristol/OPDC
• Dr Chrystalina Antoniades , University of Oxford