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 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...
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.
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!
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!
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!
Emma Cutting our Senior Trial Coordinator is back at work! After her time away, we are all so delighted to see her!
October 8, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Emma Cutting our Senior Trial Coordinator is back at work! After her time away, we are all so delighted to see her!
Congratulations Saeed for winning the Parse Neuroscience Single cell grant program!!🎉
Saeed will use this grant to better understand how human microglia interact with allogeneic dopaminergic neurones
Saeed will use this grant to better understand how human microglia interact with allogeneic dopaminergic neurones
October 3, 2025 at 9:10 AM
Congratulations Saeed for winning the Parse Neuroscience Single cell grant program!!🎉
Saeed will use this grant to better understand how human microglia interact with allogeneic dopaminergic neurones
Saeed will use this grant to better understand how human microglia interact with allogeneic dopaminergic neurones
Roger is talking at ASU-Banner Neurodegenerative Disease Research Conference in Phoenix. While out he met Eli the executive director from the WPC. They discussed the 7th WPC Congress happening in Phoenix May 2026 - anyone with an interest in Parkinson's is encouraged to come along!
wpc2026.org
wpc2026.org
September 29, 2025 at 10:26 AM
Roger is talking at ASU-Banner Neurodegenerative Disease Research Conference in Phoenix. While out he met Eli the executive director from the WPC. They discussed the 7th WPC Congress happening in Phoenix May 2026 - anyone with an interest in Parkinson's is encouraged to come along!
wpc2026.org
wpc2026.org
Roger responds to exciting trial news on HD as reported on the BBC
Expert reaction to announcement by uniQure of topline results from a phase I/II study of a gene therapy to slow Huntington’s disease progression
See all reactions in Science Media Centre:
www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-react...
Expert reaction to announcement by uniQure of topline results from a phase I/II study of a gene therapy to slow Huntington’s disease progression
See all reactions in Science Media Centre:
www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-react...
September 25, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Roger responds to exciting trial news on HD as reported on the BBC
Expert reaction to announcement by uniQure of topline results from a phase I/II study of a gene therapy to slow Huntington’s disease progression
See all reactions in Science Media Centre:
www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-react...
Expert reaction to announcement by uniQure of topline results from a phase I/II study of a gene therapy to slow Huntington’s disease progression
See all reactions in Science Media Centre:
www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-react...
Roger was at a workshop over the last 2 days in London run by ARIA exploring novel ways to treat disorders of the brain including devices. A great mix of clinical people, biologists and engineers.
September 24, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Roger was at a workshop over the last 2 days in London run by ARIA exploring novel ways to treat disorders of the brain including devices. A great mix of clinical people, biologists and engineers.
Roger met with his long standing friend Jihwan Song from Seoul last week when Jihwan was passing through the UK. Jihwan works on stem cells and Huntington's disease and Roger took him out to a traditional pub!
September 22, 2025 at 10:11 AM
Roger met with his long standing friend Jihwan Song from Seoul last week when Jihwan was passing through the UK. Jihwan works on stem cells and Huntington's disease and Roger took him out to a traditional pub!
Roger was in Zurich yesterday on an appointments committee for a new Professor of Neuroregeneration at the Institute of Regenerative Medicine (background in picture)
September 17, 2025 at 9:13 AM
Roger was in Zurich yesterday on an appointments committee for a new Professor of Neuroregeneration at the Institute of Regenerative Medicine (background in picture)
Well done Mehak! Today she presented our HD sleep qEEG work at the World Sleep Conference in Singapore.
Her poster was titled 'sleep dysfunction is associated with greater cognitive and affective deficits in neurodegeneration: a 12-year qEEG study in Huntington's Disease'
Her poster was titled 'sleep dysfunction is associated with greater cognitive and affective deficits in neurodegeneration: a 12-year qEEG study in Huntington's Disease'
September 15, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Well done Mehak! Today she presented our HD sleep qEEG work at the World Sleep Conference in Singapore.
Her poster was titled 'sleep dysfunction is associated with greater cognitive and affective deficits in neurodegeneration: a 12-year qEEG study in Huntington's Disease'
Her poster was titled 'sleep dysfunction is associated with greater cognitive and affective deficits in neurodegeneration: a 12-year qEEG study in Huntington's Disease'
Congratulations to Jamie Shonhard who helped to organise and run this year's Tulip Fun Run for the Parkinson's UK Cambridge Branch, raising over £6,000👏
A HUGE thank you goes to every runner, walker, donor, and volunteer🎊
The next Tulip Fun Run is proposed for Sunday 12th April 2026, see you there!
A HUGE thank you goes to every runner, walker, donor, and volunteer🎊
The next Tulip Fun Run is proposed for Sunday 12th April 2026, see you there!
September 10, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Congratulations to Jamie Shonhard who helped to organise and run this year's Tulip Fun Run for the Parkinson's UK Cambridge Branch, raising over £6,000👏
A HUGE thank you goes to every runner, walker, donor, and volunteer🎊
The next Tulip Fun Run is proposed for Sunday 12th April 2026, see you there!
A HUGE thank you goes to every runner, walker, donor, and volunteer🎊
The next Tulip Fun Run is proposed for Sunday 12th April 2026, see you there!
Prof Roger Barker completing his talk at the 8th Cambridge Neuroscience Symposium - Dopamine Cell Therapies for people with Parkinson’s Disease - Have we succeeded?
See here to find out more about the symposium: neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/camneuro-eve...
See here to find out more about the symposium: neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/camneuro-eve...
September 10, 2025 at 11:31 AM
Prof Roger Barker completing his talk at the 8th Cambridge Neuroscience Symposium - Dopamine Cell Therapies for people with Parkinson’s Disease - Have we succeeded?
See here to find out more about the symposium: neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/camneuro-eve...
See here to find out more about the symposium: neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/camneuro-eve...