Our main focus is understanding peripheral pathology in HD and investigate its importance for disease pathogenesis and biomarkers. Our work is based on the hypothesis that insights into peripheral pathology in HD will improve knowledge of key pathogenic mechanisms, possibly providing new biomarkers and novel therapeutic targets.

Advances in understanding the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disease and the discovery of parallel biomarkers are crucial for future therapeutic studies. Huntington’s disease is the most common inherited neurodegenerative disorder and is often regarded as a model for both sporadic and inherited neurodegenerative diseases. Many clinical features of HD can be ascribed to the dysfunction and death of neurons but evidence is emerging of a role for non-neuronal cells and tissue in the pathogenesis of HD. The causative mutant huntingtin protein is expressed throughout the body, and several disease features cannot be accounted for by neuronal pathology alone. In neurodegenerative diseases in general, non-neuronal tissue and cells are increasingly thought to influence neuronal dysfunction and death.