UCL News podcast: Amyloidosis research - breakthroughs and collaborations
24 April 2009
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Professor Mark Pepys (Director of the UCL Centre for Amyloidosis and Acute Phase Proteins) describes how his long-standing commitment to amyloidosis research has led to medical breakthroughs and a collaboration with pharmaceutical group GlaxoSmithKline to develop a drug-antibody for the disease.
Amyloidosis is responsible for 1 in 1,000 deaths in the developed world. It is caused by the deposit of insoluble protein fibres in the body causing progressive organ failure in patients.
Amyloidosis also has an aspect in common with Alzheimer's disease: amyloid deposits are present in the brain of patients with Alzheimer's, but not anywhere else in the body. This has opened up new doors of research for Professor Pepys, who discusses the viability of considering the protein as a possible therapeutic target in Alzheimer's disease.