Our speaker for this event will be Alan Crossman, Emeritus Professor of Anatomy at the University of Manchester. He graduated with a B.Sc. in Physiology and Biochemistry and then a Ph.D. in Neuroscience at Southampton University. He took up a post as Lecturer in Anatomy at the University of Manchester Medical School in 1974. Ascending the greasy pole, he became Senior Lecturer, Reader and then Professor of Anatomy, being awarded a Personal Chair in 1988.

Over a period of 40 years he taught the anatomy of the human nervous system to around 25,000 medical, dental, paramedical and science students. He also ran a large research laboratory focussed on understanding the brain processes involved in producing the symptoms of various neurological disorders of movement, including Parkinson’s disease. This work led to a discovery which has been exploited to successfully treat about 200,000 Parkinson’s patients worldwide (deep brain stimulation). The talk will describe (and where possible explain!) the symptoms, neuropathology, underlying brain mechanisms and current treatments of Parkinson’s disease. It will also look at the forefronts of current research and the possibility of a cure.