UCL Huntington’s Disease Centre

The current HD-ISS doesn't incorporate wet biomarkers. Dr. Mena Farag discusses the promising results of proenkephalin and other biomarkers to help monitor the earliest stages of HD before the onset of motor symptoms. https://loom.ly/j3VrGFs

So much @ucl-hd.bsky.social love at my leaving do! Thank you to everyone who made the last three years of my PhD journey such a joy. @uclbrainscience.bsky.social @uclqsion.bsky.social

Signing off from the LWENC with this wonderful team. 3 years of teamwork, learning and shared commitment to our #HD clinical trials @ucl-hd.bsky.social @uclqsion.bsky.social - thank you all for making it so special.

Discovery of disrupted sustained attention and altered functional connectivity in far‐from‐onset Huntington's disease gene‐expanded young adults BACKGROUND Cognitive impairments are a hallmark of Huntington's disease (HD). METHODS Seventy-one participants (43 HD gene-expanded [HDGE], 28 healthy controls) from the HD-Young Adult Study at tw...

Discovery of disrupted sustained attention and altered functional connectivity in far‐from‐onset Huntington's disease gene‐expanded young adults alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Huntington disease: somatic expansion, pathobiology and therapeutics Nature Reviews Neurology - Genome-wide association studies have identified genetic modifiers, mostly DNA repair genes, that significantly influence the onset and progression of Huntington disease,...

Our featured article for January is a Review on somatic CAG expansions and the potential for therapeutic interventions, from Sarah Tabrizi and colleagues. Free to read here: rdcu.be/eXFmV

Dr Mena Farag awarded a UK DRI Recognition Prize 2025 We're delighted that Dr Mena Farag (UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology) was awarded the UK DRI PhD Prize on 9th December 2025 at Connectome 2025.

Congratulations @drmfarag.bsky.social from @ucl-hd.bsky.social! 👏 @ukdri.ac.uk @uclqsion.bsky.social @uclbrainscience.bsky.social @uclnews.bsky.social @ucl.ac.uk 🔗 www.ucl.ac.uk/brain-scienc...

Amanda Staveley: Newcastle, my brain disease and the doctor who gave me hope The football financier who helped the Saudis buy Newcastle United has Huntington’s disease, a hereditary terminal condition with debilitating symptoms. Now a new treatment has been pioneered by a British...

"For the first time I thought, this is a real breakthrough... I’d had this sword of Damocles over me, always thinking, when’s the disease going to strike?”
Amanda Staveley shares what the pioneering Huntington's breakthrough at @uclqsion.bsky.social means to her.

UCL researchers slow the progression of Huntington’s disease for the first time with a groundbreaking new treatment

We're looking back on just some of the incredible scientific breakthroughs that came out of our Faculty this year.
First up... Researchers at @uclqsion.bsky.social made global headlines by successfully treating Huntington’s disease for the first time.
www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/se...

‘Giant step forward’ for Huntington’s — the scientist behind the first gene therapy Sarah Tabrizi is part of Nature’s 10, a list of people who shaped science in 2025.

We're delighted that Professor Sarah Tabrizi (@uclqsion.bsky.social) is part of Nature’s 10, a list of people who shaped science in 2025.
Her team's global trial at @ucl-hd.bsky.social showed a new Huntington’s treatment could slow progression by 75%.

I am incredibly honoured to share that I have been awarded the @ukdri.ac.uk PhD Prize at #Connectome 2025! @ucl-hd.bsky.social @uclqsion.bsky.social @uclbrainscience.bsky.social

Open Access UCL Research: Huntington's disease clinical trials update: October 2025
discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10...

Pioneering UCL Huntington’s researcher wins major neuroscience award Professor Sarah Tabrizi, Director of the UCL Huntington’s Disease Centre, has been awarded the British Neuroscience Association (BNA) Outstanding Contribution to Neuroscience Award for 2025, the…

🏆 1/ Professor Sarah Tabrizi, Director of the UCL Huntington’s Disease Centre (@ucl-hd.bsky.social), was awarded the British Neuroscience Association Outstanding Contribution to Neuroscience Award for 2025, the association’s top annual prize.
www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/no...

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

Check out the October 2025 edition of the #HD Clinical Trials Update, now published in the Journal of Huntington's Disease and available online! 🔗 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... @profwild.bsky.social @ucl-hd.bsky.social @uclqsion.bsky.social @uclbrainscience.bsky.social

🎉 Congratulations to Prof. Sarah Tabrizi ( @ucl-hd.bsky.social, @uclqsion.bsky.social) who has won the prestigious @britishneuro.bsky.social prize for her outstanding contributions to neuroscience!

www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/no...

Pioneering UCL Huntington’s researcher wins major neuroscience award Professor Sarah Tabrizi, Director of the UCL Huntington’s Disease Centre, has been awarded the British Neuroscience Association (BNA) Outstanding Contribution to Neuroscience Award for 2025, the assoc...

Congratulations to Professor Sarah Tabrizi @ucl-hd.bsky.social @uclqsion.bsky.social on earning the @britishneuro.bsky.social Outstanding Contribution to Neuroscience Award, for excellence and leadership in UK neuroscience and recognising her transformative impact on Huntington's disease research

Cerebrospinal Fluid Proenkephalin Predicts Striatal Atrophy Decades before Clinical Motor Diagnosis in Huntington's Disease movementdisorders.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Cerebrospinal Fluid Proenkephalin Predicts Striatal Atrophy Decades before Clinical Motor Diagnosis in Huntington's Disease Background Huntington's disease (HD) is characterized by early, selective, progressive vulnerability of striatal medium spiny neurons (MSNs). Proenkephalin (PENK), a precursor of opioid peptides abu...

Amid this week’s huge milestone in #HD treatment, I’m excited to share part of my PhD thesis + our paper published today in @movedisorder.bsky.social on CSF #PENK predicting striatal atrophy decades before clinical motor diagnosis 🔗 movementdisorders.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Amazing news from @ucl-hd.bsky.social @ucl.ac.uk hitting the headlines this week. A new form of gene therapy has successfully treated Huntington's Disease for the first time ever, slowing the disease by 75%.

This university research is changing lives.

Read more on BBC News ⬇️

Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time One of the most devastating diseases finally has a treatment that can slow its progression and transform lives, tearful doctors tell BBC.

🧵 BREAKING: Gene therapy shows promise in slowing Huntington’s disease progression. A major milestone in neurodegenerative disease research. @uclqsion.bsky.social @ucl-hd.bsky.social
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Join us on 6 October for the Ferrier Prize Lecture. Professor Gillian Bates FRS (@ucl-hd.bsky.social) will present how the Bates lab has been unravelling the molecular basis of Huntington’s disease: royalsociety.org/science-even...

Important paper on accessible biomarkers from @hob-lab.bsky.social. Well done Annabelle Coleman @drl-bo.bsky.social and all.

Evaluating finger-prick blood collection for remote quantification of neurofilament light in neurological diseases - Journal of Neurology Promising blood-based biomarkers of neuropathology have emerged with potential for therapeutic development and disease monitoring. However, these tools will require specialist tertiary services for in...

New paper from the @hob-lab.bsky.social just published in Journal of Neurology. A step toward more accessible biomarker testing 🩸 link.springer.com/article/10.1... @drl-bo.bsky.social @uclbrainscience.bsky.social @uclqsion.bsky.social

Super fun first 5K #RUN4HDYO! 🏃 💨 🏃‍♀️‍

Over £2500 raised for the Olivia (Liv) Martinez Scholarship Fund for HDYO - honouring an amazing ambassador I met at #HDYO Congress in Glasgow in 2023. Liv's kindness and passion touched so many. @ucl-hd.bsky.social @uclqsion.bsky.social

Smartphone tests could accelerate drug development for Huntington’s disease A series of digital tests, carried out via a smartphone app, could enhance the detection of disease progression in Huntington’s disease and improve the efficiency of clinical trials, finds research le...

A series of digital tests carried out via a smartphone app could enhance the detection of disease progression in #HuntingtonsDisease and improve the efficiency of clinical trials, finds research led by scientists at @uclqsion.bsky.social @ucl-hd.bsky.social and Roche including @profwild.bsky.social

What is HDClarity?🧵
HDClarity is a longitudinal open-ended observational study. The main objective of the study is to collect high-quality cerebrospinal fluid samples for longitudinal evaluation of biomarkers and pathways which will enable the development of novel treatments for #HuntingtonsDisease

Check out the March 2025 edition of the #HD Clinical Trials Update, now available online in the Journal of Huntington's Disease @profwild.bsky.social 🔓 Open access link: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... @ucl-hd.bsky.social @uclbrainscience.bsky.social @uclqsion.bsky.social

Hot off the press! Check out the second edition of the @ehdn-news.bsky.social Imaging Working Group (#iWG) newsletter! #HD #neuroimaging @drmichelaleocadi.bsky.social @rachiscahill.bsky.social @nicolahobbs.bsky.social ehdn.org/wp-content/u...

UCL HD Centre @ucl-hd.bsky.social celebrating #HDGratitudeDay. Thanks to all the families and researchers around the world who together are trying to improve lives for people with Huntington’s disease.

Neuroimaging Techniques in Huntington's Disease: A Critical Review Background Huntington's disease (HD) is a hereditary neurodegenerative disorder characterized by cognitive, neuropsychiatric and motor symptoms caused by a CAG trinucleotide repeat expansion in the ...

Curious about brain imaging in HD? Our latest review summarises key findings from structural, diffusion and fMRI, plus emerging techniques like 7T MRI, MEG and novel mHTT PET ligands. movementdisorders.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... @rachiscahill.bsky.social @carlosestevezfraga.bsky.social

Antisense oligonucleotide–mediated MSH3 suppression reduces somatic CAG repeat expansion in Huntington’s disease iPSC–derived striatal neurons MSH3 lowering by antisense oligonucleotides dose-dependently reduces CAG repeat expansions in iPSC-derived neurons from a patient with HD.

Exciting news! Our latest paper is out today in @ScienceTM — 'Antisense oligonucleotide–mediated MSH3 suppression reduces somatic CAG repeat expansion in Huntington’s disease iPSC–derived striatal neurons' 🧬 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @uclqsion.bsky.social @uclbrainscience.bsky.social