Laboratory of Motor and Sensory Systems - Honours projects available in 2009

An Honours project undertaken in this lab would be administered by the Discipline of Physiology.

Dr Haydn Allbutt's laboratory is interested in working out how the body moves and senses its environment, using interesting neurological conditions as the basis for investigation into these pathways.

1. Development of a new model of Parkinson's Disease

Supervisor + contact details:

• Dr Haydn Allbutt

One of the primary focuses of the laboratory is to investigate possible causes of Parkinson_s Disease, a debilitating condition which affects 1% of people over the age of 65. Despite being described over 190 years ago, the cause of the condition is still not known. This project aims to evaluate a possible cause of Parkinson's Disease by investigating the symptoms and neural changes that occur as a result of insults to specific cell types in the CNS. In addition, the project will include an investigation into a possible blood test for the beginning stages of Parkinson's Disease, which if successful will provide an earlier diagnostic blood test than anything currently existing. ...more - PDF

2. Investigation into olfaction as an early symptom of Parkinson's Disease

Supervisor + contact details:

• Dr Haydn Allbutt

This project is an exciting project that has two stages. The first stage will be to work on developing a new test of olfaction, the hole-board olfactory test, using normal rats. The reason for this is that along with the characteristic shaking associated with Parkinson_s Disease one of the most prevalent symptoms is loss of smell, with 80-100% of patients being affected. It is also thought that loss of smell may present much earlier than motor deficits, and thus may be an early indicator of neurodegeneration, prior to other symptoms. Being able to detect Parkinson_s Disease early would be of great benefit as it would allow the use of neuroprotective therapies in order to halt the progression of the disease, before a debilitating level of loss has occured.

The second stage of this project is that once the olfactory test has been developed it will be used to examine olfaction in two animal models of Parkinson_s Disease, the standard 6-OHDA model and also a new model being developed in this lab. This project will combine the excitement of developing and validating new methods never before used in science with new research into the second most common neurodegenerative disease in our society. The results obtained will potentially provide important information into one of the major symptoms of Parkinson_s Disease and also investigate the value of this symptom in the early diagnosis of the disease. ...more - PDF