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COVID-19 Normal them ground-breaking, such as novel electric stimulation therapies for stroke and tinnitus. His latest breakthrough is in the area of drug delivery for Parkinson’s disease – the hurdle he came up against in his first year as a medical graduate. Parkinson’s disease occurs due to low levels of dopamine in the brain, but dopamine cannot cross the blood-brain barrier, making drug delivery difficult. Instead, patients are often treated with a pill that enters the brain via the blood stream. “When someone with Parkinson’s takes the usual drugs to replace the dopamine that is lost, after a while it tends to flood the brain with dopamine for long periods of time, which works really well in the initial stages of taking the drug, but over time the effectiveness wears off,” John explains. John and his team, after 20 years of clinical research, have developed a drug delivery system that enables the delivery of dopamine-like chemicals across the blood brain barrier, to when and where they are needed, emulating a normal, healthy brain. “A way to understand it is to think of a car engine. Rather than flood the engine with fuel, which then overflows throughout the system, we are trying to deliver the right amount of fuel in a short blast at the right time, like a carburettor.” “We can now get the drugs into the brain in the areas they are needed when they are needed, in a way that is closer to how the brain would normally work. You just can’t achieve that with a pill.” Without giving away the intellectual property of the drug delivery system, John explains it is essentially a control signal sent through the skull that focusses into a particular part of the brain, enabling the release of chemicals needed from biological packages that float around in the bloodstream. John is hopeful the new technology will also have relevance for treating brain tumours. “With tumours we might give a chemotherapy drug that goes everywhere with lots of side effects. We hope our technology can be used to target just the tumour.” John is known on campus as a charismatic lecturer, and he hopes his passion for neurology passes on to his students. One thing he encourages all medical students to do is spend time with someone with Parkinson’s. “When you meet someone with Parkinson’s it’s an incredible experience because you see someone who is really struggling with the ability to navigate through their world in the way that we just take for granted – walking, using their hands for skilled movements, even showing emotions. It really does rob a person of the ability to show outwardly who they are,” John says. “But what we don't see is the sleep disturbances, the anxiety, the gastrointestinal disturbances, the difficulty with cognition, and many other things that may not be obviously present. And yet so often I am amazed at the determination, sense of humour and positivity that these people and their families display as they strive to get the best out of their lives living with the disease.” As well as kick-starting his clinical research career, John thanked the Neurological Foundation for the fundamental role it plays in funding basic science and young researchers in general. “The Foundation is tremendous in funding the basics. My PhD was simply ‘how does the dopamine system work’. It generated some really good ideas that we used later on, like how those tiny pulses of dopamine come and what they do.” “And the Foundation does a fantastic job of creating a community by bringing the researchers face-to-face with people who have neurological disorders and their families.” Please join us to hear Professor John Reynolds discuss his career, his latest research and how the V J Chapman Fellowship shaped the scientist he is today at a special Headlines event to mark the Foundation’s 50th Anniversary. It is the final instalment of four celebratory events held throughout the year highlighting the scientists and clinicians who were awarded the Chapman and Wrightson Fellowships, and to honour our founders. Please note this event will be held subject to COVID restrictions. Date: 24 November 2021 Time: 6.30pm Location: Toitu Otago Settlers Museum, Dunedin To get a ticket to this event, please choose from one of the options below: Phone: 0508 BRAINS (0508 272 467) EXT 3 Email: RSVP@neurological.org.nz Website: neurological.org.nz/headlines- dunedin21 Headlines 5