A team of Parkinson’s disease researchers at UK is investigating a promising method for delivering therapeutic drugs directly to patients' brains through an implanted catheter connected to a small, portable pump. The research, funded by the Michael J. Fox Foundation and the Kinetics Foundation, is being led by Peter Hardy, assistant professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology, and Luke H. Bradley, assistant professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology and of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, in the UK College of Medicine.
The research uses experimental surgical techniques developed by Zhiming Zhang, a UK associate professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology. Zhang has developed a strong program in experimental neurosurgery focused on site-specific delivery of therapeutic drugs into the brain. His methodology has broad potential application for treating a number of neurological disorders, including Parkinson's disease. This method has previously been used to deliver therapeutic compounds, such as GDNF, to the brains of Parkinson's disease patients.
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