A PhD student from Aberdeen has been awarded a grant of more than £8,000, enabling a research exchange to further her research into Parkinson’s disease.
Inga Schmidt, a postgraduate student of Professor Bettina Platt and Professor Gernot Riedel, will now visit the Schafer research group at the University of Applied Sciences Kaislautern (UASK). A student of UASK, Stephanie Rommel, will then visit Aberdeen as part of the exchange.
Professor Platt expressed her gratitude for the exchange, explaining, “This is a welcome opportunity for ECRs and widening of our research network in general, but also for me personally as I can re-connect my current home and workplace with Rheinland-Pfalz – the place I grew up and studied for my undergraduate degree in Biology at the University of Mainz in 1994.”
Inga’s research project focuses on the mechanics of disease severity, while Stephanie’s research focuses on the role of the gut when suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
The two research groups at each university both have extensive expertise in researching degenerative disorder, including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. It is hoped the project will allow each group to study models of the disease from opposing angles and gain a better understanding of the the ‘gut-brain axis’ and how it contributes to the onset and progression of the disease.
The grant, created by SULSA (Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance), aims to foster new formal collaborations between institutions and open the sharing of data and expertise, techniques, and resources.
Funding for this award came from extra tax income generated by German company BioNTech, which had previously worked on one of the leading COVID-19 vaccines Pfizer. The company funded the award hoping to reinvest their previous success with the vaccine research into further scientific progression.
Inga spoke of the grant and highlighted how it will benefit the research currently being into neurodegenerative disorders. She said: “I’m delighted to have secured this award, which will not only benefit me as an early-career researcher but also the two research groups in Aberdeen and Zweibrücken, who will be able to combine their expertise to contribute to a more comprehensive Parkinson’s disease study.”
