Harrington Discovery Institute Announces Award Recipients in New UK Rare Disease Program

Announcement of the 2021 Harrington UK Rare Disease Scholar Award recipients, their organizations and fields of research:

Pietro Fratta, MD, PhD – University College London
Gene Therapy for Kennedy’s Disease, a rare neuromuscular disease

Angela Russell, DPhil – University of Oxford
New Drugs for the Treatment of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

Helen Waller-Evans, DPhil – Cardiff University
Novel Inhibitors to Treat Multiple Lysomal Storage Disorders, causes of widespread organ damage

Wyatt Yue, PhD – University of Oxford
Inhibitors of Primary Hyperoxaluria, a cause of kidney failure

Haiyan Zhou, MD, PhD – University College London
Novel Therapy for SPTLC1-Related Hereditary Sensory Neuropathy, a cause of shooting pain

Scientists find neurochemicals have unexpectedly profound roles in the human brain

Dopamine and serotonin are at work at sub-second speeds to shape how people perceive the world and take action based on their perception. The discovery shows researchers can simultaneously measure the activity of both dopamine and serotonin in disorders ranging from depression to Parkinson’s disease.

Atomic Magnetometer Points to Better Picture of Heart Conductivity

Mapping the electrical conductivity of the heart would be a valuable tool in diagnosis and disease management, but doing so would require invasive procedures, which aren’t capable of directly mapping dielectric properties. Significant advances have recently been made that leverage atomic magnetometers to provide a direct picture of electric conductivity of biological tissues, and in Applied Physics Letters, new work in quantum sensors points to ways such technology could be used to examine the heart.