Professor James Rowe

We are interested in what the fundamental mechanisms of Parkinson-Plus disorders, and especially progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and corticobasal degeneration (CBD), are.

Knowledge about mechanisms, biomarkers, and disease progression will be able to inform the development of better treatment options for patients and might eventually lead to finding a cure for Parkinson-Plus diseases.

We would like to understand how these different diseases lead to changes in the brain anatomy, in memory and cognitive function, and behaviour. In order to design novel tests for a better diagnosis and test novel drugs we are trying to find new biomarkers for these diseases and develop novel treatment strategies with the aim to halt the illness or treat specific symptoms.

A lot of our research involves brain imaging. We are using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) but also positron emission tomography (PET) to determine the binding of radiomarkers to specific accumulating proteins or the amount of inflammation in the brain of patients with these diseases. Ultra-high-field MRI allows us to detect exceptionally fine grained details of structural and functional brain changes. A special method used in our Cambridge research is the use of magnetoencephalography (MEG) that allows us to study networks and responses in the brain, which is important to determine potential drug treatment options.

The  Cambridge Brain Bank is a very important partner for our research on Parkinson-Plus diseases as they determine the post mortem underlying pathologies of the brains donated by patients.