Huntington's Disease

Background: The brain damage which causes Huntington’s Disease starts years before the disease symptoms appear. By the time symptoms appear a lot of damage has been caused to the brain. Treatment is far more likely to stop Huntington’s Disease from getting worse if it’s used before the symptoms start, when less damage has happened. However, to find out if a treatment is working at this early stage, tests that can directly measure this brain damage are needed, and they do not exist at the moment. In this project, thanks to pilot support from the o8t Infinitome Imaging Award 2021 and the Brainbox Initiative Research Challenge Prize 2020, we are directly measuring brain activity in people who will get Huntington’s disease in future but do not have symptoms yet. These measurements of brain activity can detect problems in how the brain is working. Based on what early problems are found using these measurements, we hope to be able to develop tests which can be used to measure early brain damage in Huntington’s Disease and test if drugs can reverse or stop this damage. We aim to expand this project with further research funding.

To get more information or to express your interest in getting involved as a study participant, contact us and mention which studies you are interested in.