The fund supports a range of neurological conditions in the Midlands. Further details of how we support researchers, clinicians and patients is described in detail below.
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The range of neurological conditions researched is vast and included stroke, head injury, dementia, brain tumours, spinal tumours, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, motor neurone disease and a variety of disorders producing chronic pain, such as neuralgia and migraine.
Projects are identified by respected medical staff and expert researchers who are involved in the care of patients. The conditions that they see are often experienced by millions of people across the world and the potential treatments could be life-changing for them and their families.
We support this research, building upon the specialisms in the locality, building the knowledge base and opportunities for medics to create excellence in treatment.
Funds are spent in an efficient way to deliver results, supporting pilot studies and innovation that lead to major impacts in patient care and treatment. Get involved and your donation will make a real difference to the innovative way people can be treated when dealing with complex and challenging illnesses. Click the button below to find out how.
The main idea behind this project was to test whether light-based therapy (called photobiomodulation) can change how damaged nerve cells and immune cells in the spinal cord respond after injury, in a way that helps recovery.
To do this, we studied changes in gene activity in the injured spinal cord after treatment. We found that the therapy increased activity in genes involved in nerve growth, energy production, and cell communication, while reducing activity in genes linked to cell death, stress, and inflammation.
Overall, these results suggest that photobiomodulation helps nerve cells produce and use energy more normally. This reduces harmful stress and inflammation after injury and creates a more supportive environment for nerve fibres to regrow.
Mr Andrew R. Stevens, University of Birmingham
Co- investigators / Supervisor: Mr D. Davies, Dr M. Hadis, Prof. M. Milward, Prof. Z. Ahmed, Prof. A. Belli, Prof. W. Palin.
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