Diagnosing the Scent of Parkinson’s with Mass Spectrometry and Joy │ Prof Monty Silverdale

Summary: Joy Milne, a ‘super-smeller’ from Edinburgh, noticed an unusual musky smell on her husband Les, 12 years before he developed Parkinson’s disease (PD). This chance finding suggested that skin chemicals may be altered in PD. We performed a large study using mass spectrometry to analyze metabolites from skin swabs of Parkinson’s disease and control participants across the UK. Our results demonstrate altered skin chemicals in PD which we hope will enable us to develop a simple skin swab test for PD. We also plan to investigate prodromal participants to determine if we can use a simple skin swab to diagnose PD much earlier than is currently possible. I will tell the amazing story of Joy and how her nose may lead to improved treatments in PD. Speaker Bio: Professor Silverdale is a consultant Neurologist at the Manchester Centre for Clinical Neurosciences and a Professor of Neurology at the University of Manchester. He jointly runs the Greater Manchester Complex Parkinson’s disease and Movement Disorder service and is Neurology lead for the Greater Manchester Deep Brain Stimulation program. His research interests include developing improved biomarkers in Parkinson’s disease and understanding non-motor symptoms, especially pain in Parkinson’s disease. He also runs a number of clinical trials in Parkinson’s disease and Deep Brain Stimulation. Moderator: Ridwan Ibrahim, Ph.D. University of Calgary, Canada. Coordinator: Mosab Ali Awadelkareem, Al-Neelain University, Sudan. Society of Neuroscientists of Africa – SONA: https://sonafrica.org/   / sonaorg     / society-of-neuroscientists-of-africa-sona-...      / @societyofneuroscientistsof385   TReND in Africa: https://trendinafrica.org/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/trendin... https://twitter.com/trendinafrica?lan...   / trendinafrica   IPDGC Africa: https://www.ipdgc-africa.com/    / @ipdgc-africa6075     / ipdgc_africa     / ipdgcafrica   Worldwide Neuro: https://www.worldwideneuro.com/   / worldwideneuro