Spotlight on the BRAIN Unit at the Senedd

BRAIN Unit director, Professor Liam Gray spoke at a recent event hosted by the British Neuroscience Association (BNA) at the Senedd on Tuesday 17 September 2024. The event, titled ‘Neuroscience and Mental Health Research: Spotlight on Wales’, aimed to emphasise the importance of neuroscientific research to tackle health challenges in Wales to policymakers.  

 Government ministers, funders and other researchers from across Wales gathered to hear about a variety of neuroscientific research, including that of the BRAIN Unit’s who are developing and delivering advanced therapies for neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington’s disease, which affects around 7000 people in the UK. Currently, the BRAIN Unit is one only five centres worldwide delivering a potentially game-changing gene therapy  UniQure AMT-130 for people with Huntington’s Disease.   

Professor Gray said, “We are at a pivotal and exciting stage in neuroscience research, with Advanced Cell and Gene Therapies holding significant promise for disease modification in heretofore untreatable neurological conditions. We are one of the few centres in the world performing these early phase clinical trials, providing the evidence needed for their translation into clinical care. ” 

Looking to the future, Professor Gray announced that the BRAIN Unit has plans to rebrand in April 2025. The unit will be known as the Advanced Neurotherapies Centre and will continue to work towards being a Centre of Excellence for the development and delivery of advanced therapeutics with trials planned for dementia and Parkinson’s Disease.  

Learn more about the future of the BRAIN Unit in our annual report.