Monthly research review – October 2019
At the end of each month the SoPD writes a post which provides an overview of some of the major pieces of Parkinson’s-related research that were made available during October 2019. The post is divided into seven parts based on the type of research:
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So, what happened during October 2019?
In world news:
October 1st – It was reported that human embryos have extra hand muscles, which are also found in lizards. But these muscles are lost in most human adults (curiously 14% of us retain them, with no side effects – click here and here to read more about this).
October 7th – The 2019 Nobel prize for medicine was awarded jointly to William G. Kaelin Jr, Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe and Gregg L. Semenza “for their discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability” (Click here to read more about this).
October 12th – Typhoon Hagibis made landfall in Japan. It was the biggest storm to hit the region in decades
October 23rd – The technology company Google laid claim to quantum supremacy.
October 28th – It was discovered that the solar system may have a new smallest dwarf planet, named Hygiea
October 31st – A fire destroyed the majority of the 500-year-old Japanese Shuri Castle, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
And it was with sadness that we learnt at the SoPD of the passing of Professor Ken Bowler. Here is the UK, Ken was influential in establishing the Parkinson’s UK Research Support Network, and he helped to make the Edinburgh Research Interest Group into the amazing group that it is. He will be greatly missed (Click here to read more about Ken).
Prof Ken Bowler (right) with Dr Tilo Kunath in Edinbugh this year
In the world of Parkinson’s research, a great deal of new research and news was reported:
In October 2019, there were 834 research articles added to the Pubmed website with the tag word “Parkinson’s” attached (6788for all of 2019 so far). In addition, there was a wave to news reports regarding various other bits of Parkinson’s research activity (clinical trials, etc).