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Speakers:
Sir Michael Rawlins, Honorary Professor, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Prof Sarah Tabrizi, Professor of Clinical Neurology, University College London
Prof Nancy Wexler, geneticist, discoverer of the gene that causes HD
Huntington’s Disease (HD) is an incurable hereditary disorder of the central nervous system which affects muscle co-ordination and cognitive functions. Every child of someone with HD has a 50% chance of inheriting the disease; this level of genetic certainty medical science a chance of finding the key to unlocking the door for a whole range of more common neuro-degenerative diseases such as Alzheimers and Parkinsons. The SMC ran this background briefing to coincide with a new study in the Lancet revealing unexpected new figures on the prevalence of the disease, the launch of an All Party Parliamentary Group on Huntington’s Disease.