The Barker / Williams-Gray Lab

05/12/2025

'Is it time to target inflammation in Huntington’s disease?'

Save the date for EHDN's next platform meeting: Friday 30 January 2026, 13:30-15:00 CET!

Roger will be presenting, as well as Dr Niels Skotte then an expert panel discussion, chaired by Prof. Maria Björkqvist.

All are very welcome to attend and ask questions!

Register here:

Evidence supports inflammation playing a role in Huntington's disease pathogenesis. The mutant huntingtin protein disrupts immune cell function, centrally and peripherally. Long before symptom onset, activated microglia and astrocytes can be detected and levels of pro-inflammatory molecules like IL-...

04/12/2025

Congratulations to our PhD student Jana for winning the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute Seed Funding Scheme 2026 🎉 The project is titled 'expanding multiplexing capabilities of confocal imaging systems using average arrival time-gating acquisition and unmixing'. We wish you all the best with the work and look forward to seeing it develop!!

04/12/2025

I’m happy to share that the preprint for “Phosphoproteomic profiling reveals post-translational dysregulation in Huntington’s disease patient-derived neurons,” is now live on Biorxiv.
Thank you to all involved for the incredible teamwork and contributions in this paper, a collaborative effort!

03/12/2025

Our very own Sophie has just returned from an exciting research visit to our collaborators at the Jakobsson Lab in Lund University, Sweden!

During her month stay, Sophie carried out Oxford Nanopore long-read sequencing experiments as part of her PhD project - an opportunity made possible through the BRC NDD Pump Priming Grant, which she secured in late March this year.

Huge thanks to the Jakobsson Lab for being such wonderful hosts, and congratulations again to Sophie for making the most of this fantastic opportunity!

01/12/2025

The Parkinson's Plan by Michael S Okun and Ray Dorsey. From cause to care— everything we know about Parkinson's disease, and what we can do next.
Roger helped contribute to the book by completing an interview with Michael and he kindly sent him a signed copy with a lovely message!
See more on the book here: https://pdplan.org/

28/11/2025

Saeed and Roger's manuscript has just been published in the “Clinical Trials Highlights” of the Journal of Parkinson’s disease!
See the manuscript here: https://doi.org/10.1177/1877718X251397277
In this paper they have summarised the landscape of ongoing and recently completed clinical trials of dopamine cell replacement therapy for Parkinson’s disease.

Parkinson's disease is a common neurodegenerative disorder, which is characterised by motor features, many of which relate to the loss of the dopaminergic ...

27/11/2025

Roger was in Stockholm on Tuesday 25th November at the Karolinska Institute giving the first Ernest Arenas Memorial Lecture. This was delivered in the Nobel Forum.
Ernest sadly died last year (see article here from Karolinska Institute: https://news.ki.se/professor-ernest-arenas-has-passed-away) and was a long term collaborator and colleague of Roger. They worked on 4 EU consortia and wrote 8 papers together and shared many projects around Parkinson's disease.
The talk on cell therapies for Parkinson's Disease by Roger, also included personal reflections on Ernest from roger
Here are some photos from the event.

26/11/2025

Prof Roger Barker has been appointed as an honorary doctor by Lund University Faculty of Medicine 🎉
Fantastic news, congratulations Roger!
See the article here with more details:

Lund University. A philosopher who deepens and renews the public conversation on ethics, judgement, and views of humanity within healthcare and medicine

25/11/2025

Roger and Saeed were approached to write a chapter in Parkinson's Disease Second Edition, Cold spring harbour perspectives in medicine. See the copy here, their chapter discussed Dopamine Cell-Based Replacement Therapies in PD! Huge congratulations Roger and Saeed 🎉

24/11/2025

I am thrilled to be speaking at the 7th World Parkinson Congress in Phoenix Arizona, taking place May 24-27, 2026. I hope to see you there. Register at https://wpc2026.org/

21/11/2025

Roger spoke at the French Movement Disorder meeting on Thursday 20th November in Toulouse.
He gave a remote talk updating the conference on recent trials in stem cell derived dopamine cell transplants in Parkinson's.

See the programme here:

21/11/2025

Roger spoke on Monday 17th November at the Bury St Edmunds Parkinson's UK branch on new advances in dopamine cell therapies in PD and this included chatting to Andy from the Stem-PD trial - a year on from his transplant and also a year on from when we spoke together at this branch meeting before. Great turnout and questions!
See here more details on what the Bury St Edmunds PD support group have on:
https://localsupport.parkinsons.org.uk/provider/bury-st-edmunds-support-group