Our research is focused on understanding the mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration and on developing strategies to delay or prevent the death of neurones in injured or degenerating brain, particularly in Huntington's disease. We are also interested in the role that changes in synaptic modulators complexin I and complexin II play in neurological illness. We use a number of different models to study HD including excitotoxin and 3-nitropropionic acid models. However, most of our studies use transgenic mouse models of HD. We use fragment (R6/2) and full length models, both of which have an adult-onset progressive phenotype resembling HD. We take a multidiciplinary approach and our work includes behavioural studies, post mortem tissue analysis and pharmacological studies approaches to developing a treatment for HD. We also use tissue culture (primary organotypic cultures, neurospheres and neuronal cell lines) for experiments aimed at understanding the molecular basis of neurodegeneration.
