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Huntington's Disease Research
The Huntington’s Disease Research team within the ECU Melanoma Research Group is a multidisciplinary team whose research is centred around investigating novel environmental enrichment treatment modalities and the development of prognostic and diagnostic assessments within the Huntington’s disease (HD) population.
Aims
- To investigate the therapeutic potential of environmental enrichment treatment modalities in impacting HD progression via clinical, functional, imaging, physiological and biochemical biomarkers;
- Assess the therapeutic effectiveness of environmental enrichment in improving the quality of life for HD individuals; and
- Design simple, inexpensive, HD-sensitive biomarkers capable of assessing HD symptomatic progression.
Current Projects
- The effects of environmental enrichment on clinical measures of disease progression and quality of life for patients with Huntington’s disease
- The sensitivity of biomarkers in detecting Huntington’s disease symptomatic onset and progression
Research Team
Primary Researchers
- Associate Professor Mel Ziman, Leader
- Dr Jennifer Thompson, Project Manager
- Dr Roger Barker, Centre for Brain Repair, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Associate Professor Nellie Georgiou-Karistianis, Experimental Neuropsychology Research Unit, Monash University
- Clinical Associate Professor Michael Bynevelt, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital
Associate Researchers
- Professor Robert Newton
- Professor Ken Nosaka
- Associate Professor Anthony Blazevich
- Associate Professor Anthony Hannan, Neural Plasticity Laboratory, Florey Neuroscience Institutes
External Collaborators
- Dr Carmela Pestell, Neurosciences Unit, North Metropolitan Area Mental Health Service, WA Department of Health
- Dr Joseph Lee, Psychiatrist Neuroscience Unit, North Metropolitan Area Mental Health Service, WA Department of Health
- Mr Steve Andrews, Neurosciences Unit, North Metropolitan Area Mental Health Service, WA Department of Health
- Dr Penny Flett, CEO, Brightwater Care Group
- Assistant Professor Caroline Bulsara, The University of Western Australia
- Ms Janet Wagland, Manager of Services of Younger People, Brightwater Care Group
- Mr Timothy Lo, Residential Care Manager, Brightwater Care Group
- Jessica Dwyer, Resident and Report Coordinator, The Bethanie Group Inc.
Alliances
Huntington’s disease organisations
- Ms Dee Sidhu, Huntington’s Disease Association of WA
Research students
PhD
- Mr Travis Cruickshank
- Mr Alvaro Reyes