From the first 15 samples that the Tissue Bank provided to Dr Barker, he only found one case that had the genetic variant that he was investigating.

We have since provided Dr Barker with tissue from over 60 extra cases, and are waiting to hear how many of these contain the genetic variant.

Dr Roger Barker is based at the Cambridge Centre for Brain Repair. His group has been using tissue from the Tissue Bank for a number of years as part of his work into the role of genetics in Parkinson’s and the development of non-motor symptoms.

In 2006, Dr Barker requested tissue from the Tissue Bank for a study comparing the genetic material in people with Parkinson’s to those who do not have the condition (control donors). Dr Barker’s group had found a genetic variant (difference) in the structure of a specific gene that could increase the risk of Parkinson’s developing, and he wanted to use Tissue Bank donated material to study the gene.

Dr Barker’s group believed that the variant they had identified may result in changes of activity of this particular gene. In order to test this, they needed to compare the levels of gene activity in individuals carrying the genetic variant who had a higher risk of developing Parkinson’s with levels in individuals with the normal form of the gene. To do this, they needed to find out two pieces of information from each sample. Firstly, was the genetic variant present and, secondly, how much activity was taking place in the tissue.

The Sleep Project

More tissue from the Tissue Bank will also be required for another project that is being carried out by Dr Barker, which has just been funded by the Parkinson’s Disease Society. The study is going to investigate sleep disturbances, a common occurrence in Parkinson’s. Sleep problems may occur for many years before a diagnosis of Parkinson’s is made, and finding out what is happening in the brain will provide important clues to how Parkinson’s develops. His team will see if sleep disturbances occur in a particular group of people with Parkinson’s and if there is a pattern of cell loss in the brain. The information obtained from the examination of the brain samples will be compared with the clinical data that is obtained from other donors.

Dr Barker also wants to investigate whether sleep disturbance in Parkinson’s reflects a more fundamental problem in the normal 24-hour cycle of our bodies, and how the brain change during this cycle. He will use tissue that has been donated to the Tissue Bank from donors with different stages of Parkinson’s, and also ‘control’ tissue (from people without Parkinson’s) to find out if the ‘clock’ genes involved in regulating our 24-hour cycles are different in various regions of the brain and if these are related to the clinical symptoms of the condition.