The Barker Lab
@thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social
We are led by Professor Roger Barker, for the last 25 years we have run both clinical and laboratory-based research, focused on neurodegenerative diseases Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease.
Roger spoke at the French Movement Disorder meeting on Thursday 20th November in Toulouse.
He gave a remote talk updating the conference on recent trials in stem cell derived dopamine cell transplants in Parkinson's.
See the programme here:
www.sofma.net/programme-20...
He gave a remote talk updating the conference on recent trials in stem cell derived dopamine cell transplants in Parkinson's.
See the programme here:
www.sofma.net/programme-20...
PROGRAMME 2025 - SOFMA
www.sofma.net
November 21, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Roger spoke at the French Movement Disorder meeting on Thursday 20th November in Toulouse.
He gave a remote talk updating the conference on recent trials in stem cell derived dopamine cell transplants in Parkinson's.
See the programme here:
www.sofma.net/programme-20...
He gave a remote talk updating the conference on recent trials in stem cell derived dopamine cell transplants in Parkinson's.
See the programme here:
www.sofma.net/programme-20...
Roger spoke at the Bury St Edmunds Parkinson's UK branch yesterday on new advances in dopamine cell therapies in PD. This included chatting Andy from the Stem-PD trial - a year on from his transplant. Great turnout and questions!
See here future events:
localsupport.parkinsons.org.uk/provider/bur...
See here future events:
localsupport.parkinsons.org.uk/provider/bur...
Bury St Edmunds Support Group
localsupport.parkinsons.org.uk
November 21, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Roger spoke at the Bury St Edmunds Parkinson's UK branch yesterday on new advances in dopamine cell therapies in PD. This included chatting Andy from the Stem-PD trial - a year on from his transplant. Great turnout and questions!
See here future events:
localsupport.parkinsons.org.uk/provider/bur...
See here future events:
localsupport.parkinsons.org.uk/provider/bur...
Roger attended a workshop and then the grants committee for MyName'5Doddie Foundation last week!
The event brought together leading researchers, clinicians, industry partners and people affected by MND to shape the future of the Discovery Network.
Find out more here:
www.myname5doddie.co.uk
The event brought together leading researchers, clinicians, industry partners and people affected by MND to shape the future of the Discovery Network.
Find out more here:
www.myname5doddie.co.uk
November 20, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Roger attended a workshop and then the grants committee for MyName'5Doddie Foundation last week!
The event brought together leading researchers, clinicians, industry partners and people affected by MND to shape the future of the Discovery Network.
Find out more here:
www.myname5doddie.co.uk
The event brought together leading researchers, clinicians, industry partners and people affected by MND to shape the future of the Discovery Network.
Find out more here:
www.myname5doddie.co.uk
Serenata Female Voices - Sunday 21st December in aid of Parkinson's UK
A host of sparkling Christmas songs and carols at Trinity College Chapel in Cambridge, come along!
serenatafemalevoices.co.uk/event/christ...
A host of sparkling Christmas songs and carols at Trinity College Chapel in Cambridge, come along!
serenatafemalevoices.co.uk/event/christ...
November 20, 2025 at 10:20 AM
Serenata Female Voices - Sunday 21st December in aid of Parkinson's UK
A host of sparkling Christmas songs and carols at Trinity College Chapel in Cambridge, come along!
serenatafemalevoices.co.uk/event/christ...
A host of sparkling Christmas songs and carols at Trinity College Chapel in Cambridge, come along!
serenatafemalevoices.co.uk/event/christ...
Tom, Sarah and Roger went to a reception at the Houses of Parliament yesterday organised by the HDA and hosted by MP Helen Maguire.
It brought together patients and their families, the HDA, MPs, clinicians and scientists with a series of talks, mainly around the UniQure gene therapy trial in HD.
It brought together patients and their families, the HDA, MPs, clinicians and scientists with a series of talks, mainly around the UniQure gene therapy trial in HD.
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Tom, Sarah and Roger went to a reception at the Houses of Parliament yesterday organised by the HDA and hosted by MP Helen Maguire.
It brought together patients and their families, the HDA, MPs, clinicians and scientists with a series of talks, mainly around the UniQure gene therapy trial in HD.
It brought together patients and their families, the HDA, MPs, clinicians and scientists with a series of talks, mainly around the UniQure gene therapy trial in HD.
Roger spoke on Tuesday 18th November at a meeting of the U3A. He gave the Norah Boyce Science lecture to an audience of over 150 people on line about "where are we with repairing the brain in Parkinson's Disease?". Wonderfully interactive audience with lots of great questions!
November 19, 2025 at 11:16 AM
Roger spoke on Tuesday 18th November at a meeting of the U3A. He gave the Norah Boyce Science lecture to an audience of over 150 people on line about "where are we with repairing the brain in Parkinson's Disease?". Wonderfully interactive audience with lots of great questions!
Roger is presenting the next live webinar with NoSilverBullet4PD. His talk “Stem Cells and Parkinson’s: How Close Are We?” is on Monday 8th December 2025 at 7.30pm. This event is free and open to all!
For more details & to register see here:
preview.mailerlite.io/emails/webvi...
For more details & to register see here:
preview.mailerlite.io/emails/webvi...
November 17, 2025 at 10:58 AM
Roger is presenting the next live webinar with NoSilverBullet4PD. His talk “Stem Cells and Parkinson’s: How Close Are We?” is on Monday 8th December 2025 at 7.30pm. This event is free and open to all!
For more details & to register see here:
preview.mailerlite.io/emails/webvi...
For more details & to register see here:
preview.mailerlite.io/emails/webvi...
We are excited to announce the recently published paper 'Chromatin accessibility during human first-trimester neurodevelopment' in nature!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Chromatin accessibility during human first-trimester neurodevelopment - Nature
A study describes chromatin accessibility and paired gene expression across the entire developing human brain during the first trimester in the context of gene regulation and neurodevelopmental diseas...
www.nature.com
November 14, 2025 at 9:48 AM
We are excited to announce the recently published paper 'Chromatin accessibility during human first-trimester neurodevelopment' in nature!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Jamie and Jana attended the School of Clinical Medicine Doctoral Training Programme symposium at Clare college yesterday! Jamie presented his work on PSP & CBD and was part of the organising committee.. He helped with the planning, running of the event and chaired the career panel session.
November 13, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Jamie and Jana attended the School of Clinical Medicine Doctoral Training Programme symposium at Clare college yesterday! Jamie presented his work on PSP & CBD and was part of the organising committee.. He helped with the planning, running of the event and chaired the career panel session.
We are delighted to announce the publication of our recent review on 2 innovative papers by the Cattaneo group (University of Milan) and the Xiong group (Fudan University), who studied stem cell transplants in Huntington’s disease animal models. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Cell transplantation therapies in Huntington’s disease – Current status and future directions
www.sciencedirect.com
November 10, 2025 at 3:35 PM
We are delighted to announce the publication of our recent review on 2 innovative papers by the Cattaneo group (University of Milan) and the Xiong group (Fudan University), who studied stem cell transplants in Huntington’s disease animal models. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Tom, Katie and Amy attended the UK & Ireland HD Network meeting in Birmingham this Thursday & Friday. They enjoyed listening to the research and clinical trials updates and breakout sessions with colleagues from other HD sites. Even managed to have a wander around the Christmas Markets!
November 7, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Tom, Katie and Amy attended the UK & Ireland HD Network meeting in Birmingham this Thursday & Friday. They enjoyed listening to the research and clinical trials updates and breakout sessions with colleagues from other HD sites. Even managed to have a wander around the Christmas Markets!
@hdbuzzfeed.bsky.social have released an article regarding the UniQure press release 3rd Nov. “This is a regulatory misalignment, not a scientific setback. It reflects the slow, iterative nature of drug development. Progress continues, just on a different timetable.”
en.hdbuzz.net/uniqure-and-...
en.hdbuzz.net/uniqure-and-...
UniQure and FDA No Longer in Alignment on Approval Pathway for AMT-130 – HDBuzz
en.hdbuzz.net
November 4, 2025 at 12:07 PM
@hdbuzzfeed.bsky.social have released an article regarding the UniQure press release 3rd Nov. “This is a regulatory misalignment, not a scientific setback. It reflects the slow, iterative nature of drug development. Progress continues, just on a different timetable.”
en.hdbuzz.net/uniqure-and-...
en.hdbuzz.net/uniqure-and-...
See here a recent Alzforum article ‘Trials Rekindle Interest in Cell Replacement for Parkinson’s’ featuring our recently published TransEUro paper!
www.alzforum.org/news/researc...
www.alzforum.org/news/researc...
Trials Rekindle Interest in Cell Replacement for Parkinson’s | ALZFORUM
www.alzforum.org
October 31, 2025 at 11:07 AM
See here a recent Alzforum article ‘Trials Rekindle Interest in Cell Replacement for Parkinson’s’ featuring our recently published TransEUro paper!
www.alzforum.org/news/researc...
www.alzforum.org/news/researc...
Last Tuesday Roger undertook another Research Spotlight with the WPC, chatting to Professor Lynn Rochester from Newcastle about life in research and the work on digital monitoring and gait in PD. The recordings are out, if you are interested go have a listen!
www.worldpdcoalition.org/page/WPCRese...
www.worldpdcoalition.org/page/WPCRese...
www.worldpdcoalition.org
October 30, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Last Tuesday Roger undertook another Research Spotlight with the WPC, chatting to Professor Lynn Rochester from Newcastle about life in research and the work on digital monitoring and gait in PD. The recordings are out, if you are interested go have a listen!
www.worldpdcoalition.org/page/WPCRese...
www.worldpdcoalition.org/page/WPCRese...
Jamie, one of our 1st year PhD students, presented at the Clinical Neurosciences Postgraduate Seminars on Friday 24th October! His presentation is titled Using Transcriptomics to Understand the Role of Neuroinflammation in Early Parkinson's and Atypical Parkinsonian Disorders PSP & CBD
October 29, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Jamie, one of our 1st year PhD students, presented at the Clinical Neurosciences Postgraduate Seminars on Friday 24th October! His presentation is titled Using Transcriptomics to Understand the Role of Neuroinflammation in Early Parkinson's and Atypical Parkinsonian Disorders PSP & CBD
The ARIA team were at a meeting last Friday in London and met up with teams from UPenn and imperial to discuss their projects.
Today Roger, Xiaoling and Sarah Howlett are meeting locally to discuss in more detail, led by George Malliaras in Cambridge and Clara from Malin Parmar's group in Lund.
Today Roger, Xiaoling and Sarah Howlett are meeting locally to discuss in more detail, led by George Malliaras in Cambridge and Clara from Malin Parmar's group in Lund.
October 28, 2025 at 12:01 PM
The ARIA team were at a meeting last Friday in London and met up with teams from UPenn and imperial to discuss their projects.
Today Roger, Xiaoling and Sarah Howlett are meeting locally to discuss in more detail, led by George Malliaras in Cambridge and Clara from Malin Parmar's group in Lund.
Today Roger, Xiaoling and Sarah Howlett are meeting locally to discuss in more detail, led by George Malliaras in Cambridge and Clara from Malin Parmar's group in Lund.
Angelica and Sophie attended the Gordon Research Conference in trinucleotide expansion disorders in Tuscany Italy during May this year! They both presented posters and had a lovely time exploring Italy!
October 21, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Angelica and Sophie attended the Gordon Research Conference in trinucleotide expansion disorders in Tuscany Italy during May this year! They both presented posters and had a lovely time exploring Italy!
Reposted by The Barker Lab
Registration and abstract submission are now open for the ISSCR 2026 Annual Meeting, co-sponsored by STEMCELL Technologies! Join us in Montréal, Canada, 8-11 July 2026. Explore the program, speakers, and all the opportunities the meeting offers 👉 www.isscr2026.org
October 15, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Registration and abstract submission are now open for the ISSCR 2026 Annual Meeting, co-sponsored by STEMCELL Technologies! Join us in Montréal, Canada, 8-11 July 2026. Explore the program, speakers, and all the opportunities the meeting offers 👉 www.isscr2026.org
Roger and Zanna went to an exciting meeting at Claire Hall on 15th October organised by Barbara Sahakian. A team from Cambridge neuroscience met with a like minded team from Fudan University in China. Roger talked about the work of our group including the sleep studies in HD being led by Zanna.
October 20, 2025 at 10:46 AM
Roger and Zanna went to an exciting meeting at Claire Hall on 15th October organised by Barbara Sahakian. A team from Cambridge neuroscience met with a like minded team from Fudan University in China. Roger talked about the work of our group including the sleep studies in HD being led by Zanna.
Reposted by The Barker Lab
5/📽️ Find out more about how the trial works in this video explainer from @cureparkinsons.org.uk. 👇
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBJj...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBJj...
EJS ACT-PD: the world's largest clinical trial for Parkinson's
The Edmond J Safra Accelerating Clinical Trials for Parkinson’s Disease (EJS ACT-PD) platform aims to transform the way we conduct Parkinson’s clinical trials in the UK. As a multi-arm, multi-stage…
www.youtube.com
October 16, 2025 at 10:08 AM
5/📽️ Find out more about how the trial works in this video explainer from @cureparkinsons.org.uk. 👇
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBJj...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBJj...
Reposted by The Barker Lab
🧵1/ The world’s largest-ever clinical trial to slow or stop Parkinson’s disease has officially launched — led by researchers at @uclqsion.bsky.social and @newcastleuni.bsky.social. A major milestone in the fight against neurodegeneration.
www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/oc...
www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/oc...
Largest-ever Parkinson’s disease trial opens across UK
The world’s largest-ever clinical trial of treatments to slow or stop the progression of Parkinson’s disease has launched, led by researchers at UCL and Newcastle University.
www.ucl.ac.uk
October 16, 2025 at 10:08 AM
🧵1/ The world’s largest-ever clinical trial to slow or stop Parkinson’s disease has officially launched — led by researchers at @uclqsion.bsky.social and @newcastleuni.bsky.social. A major milestone in the fight against neurodegeneration.
www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/oc...
www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/oc...
Roger's in Luxembourg celebrating 10 years of the NCER-PD, for which he was part of the SAB. The meeting entitled Advancing from Precision Medicine towards Prevention in PD. He gave the keynote lecture this morning on dopamine cell therapies in Parkinson's. See more here: www.uni.lu/lcsb-en/news...
October 17, 2025 at 9:22 AM
Roger's in Luxembourg celebrating 10 years of the NCER-PD, for which he was part of the SAB. The meeting entitled Advancing from Precision Medicine towards Prevention in PD. He gave the keynote lecture this morning on dopamine cell therapies in Parkinson's. See more here: www.uni.lu/lcsb-en/news...
Great seeing Andy & Nicola Tuesday for STEM-PD. After Andy and Roger completed an interview for a new ISSCR teaching module which should be released in the first half of next year!
Check out Andy’s blog ‘Parkinson's with a Purpose’ which talks about his experience with PD and research: pwap.blog
Check out Andy’s blog ‘Parkinson's with a Purpose’ which talks about his experience with PD and research: pwap.blog
October 16, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Great seeing Andy & Nicola Tuesday for STEM-PD. After Andy and Roger completed an interview for a new ISSCR teaching module which should be released in the first half of next year!
Check out Andy’s blog ‘Parkinson's with a Purpose’ which talks about his experience with PD and research: pwap.blog
Check out Andy’s blog ‘Parkinson's with a Purpose’ which talks about his experience with PD and research: pwap.blog
Postgraduate students of the Barker lab had a great time at the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute Postgraduate symposium on the 13th and 14th of October! Our final year PhD students Jana and Athena gave a talk on their work and 2nd year PhD student Angelica presented a poster.
October 15, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Postgraduate students of the Barker lab had a great time at the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute Postgraduate symposium on the 13th and 14th of October! Our final year PhD students Jana and Athena gave a talk on their work and 2nd year PhD student Angelica presented a poster.
Huge Congratulations to Chiara Properzi who graduated on the 24th of September, she is officially a Doctor of Medicine & Surgery! She completed her research project with us from May to August 2025, investigating speech alterations in patients with Huntington’s disease using AI-based algorithms.Yay!
October 9, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Huge Congratulations to Chiara Properzi who graduated on the 24th of September, she is officially a Doctor of Medicine & Surgery! She completed her research project with us from May to August 2025, investigating speech alterations in patients with Huntington’s disease using AI-based algorithms.Yay!