Huntington’s disease is a devastating genetic disease caused by an expansion of a stretch of successive glutamine residues in the huntingtin protein. Affected individuals develop abnormal movements, a form of dementia and psychiatric symptoms. Prof. Rubinsztein will describe how mutant huntingtin itself impairs autophagy and the strategies they have used to increase autophagy as a possible way of treating Huntington’s disease and related neurodegenerative conditions.
David Chaim Rubinsztein is the Deputy Director of the Cambridge Institute of Medical Research (CIMR), the Academic Lead of the Alzheimer's Research UK (ARUK) Cambridge Drug Discovery Institute, Professor of Molecular Neurogenetics at the University of Cambridge and a UK Dementia Research Institute Professor.