One Nucleus Awards Gala

Last Thursday 19th of March brought the UK-wide life sciences ecosystem leaders together for a very special occasion of the #ONAwards26 celebration at No.11 Cavendish Square in London. It was a great honour to have the project between Cellestial and The University of Manchester, supported by a Parkinson’s UK grant, recognised as one of the finalist entries in the “Best Industry and Not for Profit Collaboration of the Year”.

The purpose of our collaboration is threefold:

1. To expand our knowledge of specific biomarkers – molecular hallmarks of #Parkinsons disease which suggest suffering of brain cells called #astrocytes;

2. To understand at what stage of Parkinson’s astrocytes begin to suffer; and

3. To replicate previous findings on astrocytic network disruption at an independent facility.

Why validate previous findings? In academia, 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘵𝘺 of findings is key, but not all findings and protocols established by individual researchers and research groups replicate in new settings, for example, in more diverse cohorts of patients. Industrial and translational research should aim to build reproducibility robustly from the start to validate targets and biomarkers not only as “promising”, but “ready”.

These perspectives come together in our new project – more updates soon.

Special thanks to excellent Grace Cullen of The University of Manchester for taking the baton of brain cell imaging from Nat Hastings, Ro Gardner for Operations and Communications advice, and Agility Life Sciences for drug formulation support along the way!