Parkinson’s disease (PD) is characterised by movement disorders where patients become progressively slow, stiff and shaky. It affects 1 in every 100 of people over the age of 65 years and the cause is unknown. There is no accurate diagnostic test for PD and the clinical diagnostic criteria can result in almost 1 in 5 patients being wrongly diagnosed with PD when they have another condition with similar symptoms such as multiple system atrophy (MSA).

Iron is essential for a number of brain processes but increased levels may be damaging, resulting in neurodegeneration. This team will employ brain scanning to determine whether brain iron content can be used as a measure of PD progression. The aim is to develop a diagnostic technique to distinguish PD from MSA before this is possible in the clinic and also to improve our understanding of the disease process.