Making new drugs is long, costly and complex, and is often a mystery to many people. Our laboratory is involved in the development of new drugs for brain related illnesses, including illnesses such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Multiple Sclerosis. Alongside our research, we conduct a number of outreach projects in the hope of connecting with young scientists, healthcare professionals and the general public. In our previous Knowledge and Dissemination award from HRB, we ran three activities that included an ‘Animation Competition’ asking for animation and science students to submit animations that described brain diseases; a ‘Brain Superhero Competition’ asking school pupils to design a brain superhero and; the 3rd Annual Meeting in Frontiers in Neurology that brought together academics, clinicians and pharma researchers interested in neurological diseases. Please see: www.neurologyireland.com We believe it is important to teach as many people as possible the basics of drug development. We believe this will help students, healthcare professionals and the public to understand and become involved in these activities. Therefore, firstly, we plan to run a number of ‘Training Workshops’ to train people from all backgrounds the processes of drug development, using examples of drugs for brain diseases. Secondly, given the previous success with our school competition, we would also run our ‘Brain Superhero’ competition hoping to capture the imagination of young scientists. Thirdly, we aim to include a session specifically focused on Alzheimer’s disease in our 6th Annual Meeting 2016 in Frontiers in Neurology.
