Parkinson's Families Project

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One person in every 500 has Parkinson's and around 127,000 people are living with the condition in the UK. Unfortunately, it is a progressive disease that has no cure. Many treatments are available that can improve or maintain someone's quality of life, but the investigators would like to develop treatments that can be used much earlier in the disease process. These could slow down the disease or prevent it from progressing further. For most people who develop Parkinson's there is no clear underlying cause. However, the investigators are particularly interested in the minority of people diagnosed with Parkinson's who have either early onset disease and/or other relatives affected with Parkinson's. The investigators believe that variations in inherited material (genes) can sometimes cause the disease, and this may run in families. This opens the door to a range of studies on the effects of gene variation at a nerve cell and brain level, which the investigators hope will lead to new targeted treatments. It is already known that some rare gene variants can cause Parkinson's. Some of these are inherited in what is called an 'autosomal dominant' way i.e. each child of a person with this type of gene change has a 50% chance of inheriting it. However, it is also known that not everyone who carries the change will go on to develop the disease. Some people appear to be protected against developing the disease and the investigators would like to understand this better. Other variants, particularly important in early onset Parkinson's are "recessive", and in this form of inheritance there is a very low risk to parents and children. The investigators are looking closely at the genetic makeup of people with Parkinson's in comparison with unaffected people and in comparison to unaffected and affected family members in order to find out more about which gene changes can cause Parkinson's. Following the identification of genetic variation that causes Parkinson's, in collaboration with the NHS and other researchers, the investigators plan to: 1) develop new NHS tests of Parkinson's and 2) develop new disease model which can act as a testbed for new treatments