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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Some more photos from the Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP) meeting! 🧠🔬 A few snapshots from our time in Sweden last week, along with a throwback to the ASAP Annual Meeting in Barcelona back in June!

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Roger gave a talk on dopamine cell therapies to the Australian Hunters Parkinson's Society at their meeting last Friday. He was warmly welcomed by one of his very first fellows and now world leading clinician scientist in Parkinson's disease, Professor Simon Lewis who works out of Sydney!

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

The ASAP team, led by Johan Jakobsson, met in Skanör this week to catch up on progress with their project exploring the role of transposons in PD. Roger was there too, along with colleagues & members of his team. Great to get everyone together, share updates and discuss where the project is going!🧬🔬

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

I’m really pleased to share the publication of our new paper in Communications Biology. This work was headed by Maha Alfaidi, building on research from her PhD - fantastic to see this now published! A huge congratulations to Maha and everyone involved🎉 Read here: doi.org/10.1038/s420...

doi.org

Early α-synuclein–mediated mitochondrial dysfunction in a human cell model of Parkinson’s disease dementia - Communications Biology

A human neuron model of Parkinson’s disease using α-synuclein fibrils is developed, replicating key pathology and mitochondrial gene dysregulation, and tested peptide inhibitors B36D and S62.

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Roger was quoted in a newly published article highlighting the growing dangers of rogue clinics, fake stem cell therapies and unapproved injectables in PD. The @isscr.org has great guides to help people spot unlicensed and potentially dangerous therapies, worth a read. lnkd.in/gAs3BrvP

parkinsonsinsights.com

Unapproved stem cell clinics exploit hope and risk lives in the search for a Parkinson's cure | Parkinson's News

The promise of stem cells and anti ageing breakthroughs has created a massive market. Yet behind polished marketing lies a treacherous landscape of rogue clinics, unappr...

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

The Movers & Shakers Podcast have released their latest Parky Profile and this week it's with Professor Roger Barker 🧠 Listen to the full episode now wherever you get your podcasts 🎙️ Spotify: lnkd.in/g4Rv5MHK Apple Podcasts: lnkd.in/gbJ5qD7D

lnkd.in

This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

A huge congratulations to our PhD student, Angelica, who has been selected for the Genevia Single-Cell Mentorship Program 2026 🎉 The program provides six months of expert mentorship (October–March), which Angelica will be using to support the analysis of her single-cell data!

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Great to catch up with Claire Clelland last Thursday! Claire worked with us a few years ago on research around neurogenesis as part of her PhD and MPhil. She is now at UCSF, where she's doing incredible research in gene editing with the potential to transform how we treat certain brain diseases.

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Congratulations to our Academic Clinical Fellow, Rosana-Bristena Ionescu, on being awarded an ACT Research Grant for the IMUN-HD project! The project investigates the role of the immune system in Huntington’s disease using cutting-edge single-cell sequencing and advanced proteomic profiling.

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Great to be at #ISSCR2026 in Montreal! Roger delivered a plenary lecture on the latest progress from stem cell trials for PD—an exciting step forward for the field. It was also fantastic to catch up with Zoe Hewitt (Regen CTC, UK) and Jihwan Song (Seoul).

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

A landmark study led by Lund University in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, reports the first clinical results from the STEM-PD trial. The study shows that transplanting stem cell-derived dopamine progenitor cells into the brain is feasible👏 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Roger is in Montreal at the annual ISSCR meeting where he is discussing dopamine cell therapies in Parkinson's disease including the Lund-Cambridge Stem PD trial. He is giving a plenary talk on Saturday presenting the data from this and other published trials using this approach - exciting times!

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Congratulations to our PhD student Sophie on being awarded a completion grant from Newnham College, Cambridge. 🎓 This is a well-deserved recognition of her commitment, dedication, and excellent work as she enters the final stage of her doctoral research and prepares to submit her thesis this summer🌟

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Roger joined international colleagues in Barcelona for the ASAP meeting to explore new ways of understanding what may go wrong in PD as we age. This could pave the way to an entirely new treatment approach for this condition. We're looking forward to seeing where this work leads! #CRNBarcelona2026

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

We're pleased to share our new article, "Safeguarding Advanced Therapies—The Dangers of Therapeutic Neuroabandonment: How Should We Ensure Patient Safety and Scientific Integrity When a Commercial Clinical Trial Sponsor Becomes Insolvent?" movementdisorders.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

movementdisorders.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Episode 418 of The TogetherForSharon Podcast is now live on Spotify! Roger joined George, Sharon’s son, for a Q&A on stem cell therapies for Parkinson’s disease and the World Parkinson Congress. Listen here: open.spotify.com/episode/6qv6...

open.spotify.com

Q & A with Sharon's son, George. Episode 418 Special Guest Dr. Roger Barker, Stem Cell Therapies for Parkinson's disease and the World Parkinson Congress

The TogetherForSharon® Podcast · Episode

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Really pleased that our partnership with LSBU has helped us host 4 fantastic students for work experience placements over the last two years. Even better — 2 students have now gone on to fully funded PhDs 🎉 We are very proud of their achievements. Big thanks to Alison Alvarez for all her help!

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Beyond the “Breakthrough” “I don’t think we need a cure. If you can slow it down by 50 percent and pick people up early on, you’ve probably done it.” A new article from The Initiative Magazine explores Roger's work, perspective, and the future of PD. 👇 theinitiativemagazine.com/en/article/r...

theinitiativemagazine.com

Roger Barker: Beyond the “Breakthrough”

“I don’t think we need a cure,” neuroscientist Roger Barker said. “If you can slow it down by 50 percent and pick people up early on, you’ve probably done it.”

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Huge congratulations to Roger on receiving two 2026 Editor of Distinction Awards from Springer Nature 🎉 He was recognised with both the Editorial Contribution Award and the Author Service Award, highlighting his dedication to authors, excellence in peer review, and commitment to advancing discovery.

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Roger attended the departmental PI retreat on Thursday 21st May at Madingley hall in Cambridge. Great day was had by all as the department gels in its work and ambitions!

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

A fantastic start to the 7th World Parkinson Congress in Phoenix, Arizona🌵A special moment seeing Roger open #WPC2026 as President of the WPC - and marking what will be his final duty in the role! We’re also very proud of our PhD student James Shonhard, who presented his poster at the congress 👏

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Roger and Katie held a dissemination event last Tuesday 19th May for our FELL HD participants to present the results of the trial. The event was well received with some great questions! Thank you to all those who attended 👏

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Great day at Cambridge Dementia Research Day on 28 April Zanna spoke about “can we leverage sleep to prevent dementia?” and Roger did a brilliant patient-facing interview that brought the human side of the research into focus!

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Great to be in Edinburgh for the 39th EFI/BSHI Conference 2026! Roger gave a plenary lecture on dopamine cell therapies in Parkinson’s disease as part of the conference theme, “From Genes to Grafts: Where Innovation Meets Medicine.” More about the conference here: efi-conference.org

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Today, on International Huntington’s Disease Awareness Day, our team is wearing purple for Juvenile HD and blue for Huntington’s Disease awareness💜💙 Learn more about HD and the support available through the Huntington’s Disease Association: www.hda.org.uk #InternationalHDAwarenessDay

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

A big thanks to everyone who joined us for this year’s Barker Lab retreat! Three great days of talks from across the groups, loads of useful feedback and discussion, a very competitive quiz, and an excellent pub dinner to finish things off 🍻 Already looking forward to the next one 🎉

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Had a great time at the CCTU Neuroscience theme event on Thursday! Roger & Katie presented FELL-HD, Saeed shared STEM-PD, and Zanna showcased DORA-HD. It wrapped up with a really insightful panel discussion with trial participants. Such a great event—big thanks to Emma Cutting and the CCTU team 🎉

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Exciting News: Roger has ranked 29 in UK and 208 in the world for the 2026 Edition of Best Scientists in the field of Neuroscience by Research.com!🎉 Summary of the statistics and trends:research.com/careers/worl...rt Full ranking for the UK: research.com/scientists-rankings/ne…

research.com

World Online Ranking of Best Neuroscientists – 2026 Report | Research.com

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Excited to share that our team is joining ASAP CRN @asapresearch.parkinsonsroadmap.org! We look forward to collaborating with scientists globally to catalyze breakthroughs in Parkinson’s & accelerate discoveries that lead to new treatments. Explore more: asapcrn.org #ParkinsonsDisease

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Roger is giving a plenary lecture today on dopamine cell therapies in Parkinson's disease at 39th EFI/BSHI Conference 2026 in Edinburgh! From Genes to Grafts: Where Innovation meets Medicine 🔬 efi-conference.org

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

We are delighted to announce the publication of “Stem cell treatments and Parkinson's disease: Science and misconceptions” in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease. The article by Athena Stamper, Harry Bulstrode and Roger Barker can be found here: doi.org/10.1177/1877...

doi.org

Stem cell treatments and Parkinson's disease: Science and misconceptions - Athena Stamper, Harry Bulstrode, Roger A Barker, 2026

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder associated with the accumulation of alpha-synuclein in Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites, as we...

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Welcome Rosana-Bristena Ionescu to the Barker Lab 🎉 Bristena will be joining us as a Clinical Research Fellow for the next 2 years! She will do a joint project between the Barker and Jones labs using cutting-edge single-cell RNA sequencing to explore how the immune system shapes the course of HD.

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Check out this great new webinar by Huntington's Disease Foundation featuring a presentation from Zanna Voysey 🎉 The HDF have just released a new webinar episode called What Your Blood Tells Us: The Science Behind HD Biomarkers Avaliable now on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=llim...

youtube.com

What Your Blood Tells Us: The Science Behind HD Biomarkers, 3/24/2026; Lauren Byrne and Zanna Voysey

YouTube video by Huntington's Disease Foundation

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

The Cambridge Clinical Trials Unit Neuroscience Theme Event is back 🎉 Join online or in person on Thursday 30th April 13:00-16:00, to hear results from completed trials, flash presentations, and a panel discussion with trial participants! Please register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/neuroscien...

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Roger was honoured today to give a talk virtually at the Cambridge Nanjing forum on cell therapies for Parkinson's disease!

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Check out this 3D image of neurons created by our PhD student Jana! The image contains striatal neurons after 21 days in vitro expressing thyroxin hydroxylase (in green), cell nucleus (in blue), neuronal markers (red and cyan). Thyroxin hydroxylase plays a crucial role in the synthesis of dopamine.

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Last Wednesday Roger did a talk on the value and misconceptions of dopamine cell replacement therapy as a potential treatment for Parkinson’s disease! To view the talk please see here: www.vumedi.com/video/parkin... (the link will only work for registered users but creating an account is free)

vumedi.com

Parkinson Disease Cell Therapy: What Stem Cell-Derived Dopamine Neurons Can and Cannot Do

A video from Roger Barker, posted on Mar 18, 2026.

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Today is #HDGratitudeDay 💙Celebrating the partnership between families, scientists and clinical professionals to advance treatments for HD! We want to take a moment to recognise incredible families and participants who contribute to research—thank you for everything you do. ehdn.org/hd-gratitude...

ehdn.org

HD Gratitude Day: 23 March 2026 – European Huntington's Disease Network

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Excited to announce that we have been successfully awarded the @ehdn-news.bsky.social EHDN Lesley Jones Seed Fund Program 🎉 Using this fund, we will explore the possibility that transposable elements, normally silent parts of the human genome, become activated in brain cells in Huntington's disease!

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

The Tulip Fun Run and Walk is Back 🌷🏃 Get ready to run, walk, and have fun while supporting the Parkinson's UK Cambridge Branch at the Tulip Fun Run 2026. Our PhD student James Shonhard helped organise the event! See here how to register and fundraise: parkinsonscambridge.wordpress.com/tfr2026/

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

A special Cambridge moment: Angelica train-bearing for the Chancellor's installation at senate house 🎓💐 Chris Smith, Lord Smith of Finsbury, has been formally installed as the 109th Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. Watch the full 40-minute ceremony: www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmKE...

youtube.com

The New Chancellor of the University of Cambridge Installation Ceremony

YouTube video by Cambridge University

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

I am proud to have presented in the new open-access @isscr.org course, Stem Cell Medicine: Parkinson's Disease, jointly provided with Harvard Medical School! Six modules explore stem cell therapies for PD. Plus a powerful conversation with a clinical trial participant. invt.io/1bxbvu0b8p7

invt.io

I am a presenter in the ISSCR Continuing Education Course.

Learn more.

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

I am excited to announce that I am a member of the @isscr.org ISSCR Education Committee! Learn more about our work and my fellow colleagues: invt.io/1lxbsu0i835

invt.io

I am a member of the ISSCR Education Committee

Learn more.

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Huge congratulations to Saeed for smashing the Cambridge Half Marathon with an incredible 1:18 finish time! 🏃‍♂️🔥

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Quick clinic update: Our Wednesday Huntington's Disease clinics are changing from full days to half days (9am - 12.30pm) from mid April 2026! Any questions please get in touch with our HD clinic coordinator.

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

The road ahead for uniQure: FDA says more data needed for AMT-130 gene therapy. On March 2026, uniQure shared in an update that current Phase 1/2 data weren’t enough for the agency. A new randomized, sham-controlled trial may be required. Read the full article here: en.hdbuzz.net/the-road-ahe...

en.hdbuzz.net

The road ahead for uniQure: FDA says more data needed for AMT-130 gene therapy – HDBuzz

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

We kindly received Watch your step, Mr Parkinson! by Frank Snowy Stinson This book is a personal story of life with Parkinson’s. It is educational, encouraging and honest, touching on many issues of relevance to all those who are impacted by 'Parkee'. Find the book here: www.watchyourstep.com.au

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The Barker Lab @thebarkerlabgroup.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

Our annual Parkinson's Disease Open day was on Saturday 14th February, which was a great success 🎉 We had talks about ongoing research projects, ways to get involved, and a patient perspective. A huge thank you to everyone involved with set up, speakers and all who attended!!

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