UK Researchers Make Breakthrough in Fight against Serious Disease

World | February 14, 2009, Saturday // 00:00
Bulgaria UK Researchers Make Breakthrough in Fight against Serious Disease: UK Researchers Make Breakthrough in Fight against Serious Disease UK researchers have discovered a way of detecting Parkinson's disease early. Photo by ucdavis.edu

UK scientific researchers have discovered that a light as bright as a million-watt bulb can help identify early signs of Parkinson's disease. The Keele University team told a conference Saturday that a "super-microscope" could spot changes in brain cells before the disease destroyed them, the BBC reported.

Keele University's, Dr Joanna Collingwood said that the technique was "pioneering". She told the American Association for the Advancement of Science patients could be treated sooner as a result.

Dr Collingwood said the team had been using a synchrotron - or Diamond Light Source (DLS) - at Harwell, Oxfordshire.

The device is a large doughnut-shaped particle accelerator, the size of five football pitches, which fires particles at just below the speed of light, focusing them into a beam less than a single cell in diameter. It allows researchers to observe iron levels in individual brain cells, which are affected by Parkinson's.

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