Darwin, Einstein, Newton, and Manchester??s Professor Nancy Rothwell: The Fellowship of The Royal Society
The Alzheimer??s Society estimates that there are currently over 750 000 sufferers in the UK. (www.alzheimers.org.uk)
Alzheimer??s disease is a devastating illness that gradually disrupts the chemistry and structure of the brain, resulting in severe neuro-mechanism damage, long-term suffering, and the eventual death of the sufferer. The disease not only has devastating effects on the sufferer, who faces memory loss, increasing confusion and communication difficulties, but also on their family, who see their loved one diminish into frailty and weakness.
There are currently no known cures for the disease although drugs called ??inhibitors?? that alleviate the symptoms. However, through the innovative research of scientists such as Professor Nancy Rothwell, the prospect of a possible cure is conceivable.
Nancy Rothwell is a MRC Research Professor at the University of Manchester. She is a pioneer in the field of neuroscience, neuro-inflammation, degeneration, memory impairment, and brain disorders and repair. Her scientific research into co-ordinated responses and immunology is a significant contribution to neurobiology and is invaluable to biomedicine and the understanding of strokes, trauma, epilepsy, and Alzheimer??s disease.
At the University of London, she obtained a BSc, PhD and DSc in Physiology. At the University of Manchester, scientific investment: Trained 30 PhD students and actively encourages the scientific training of youths. Chairperson of the MRC Neuroscience Board, a member of The Academy of Medical Sciences Council, a trustee of Cancer Research UK, chairperson of Biosciences Federation Animal Science Group, and President Elect of the British Neuroscience Association. (www.nesta.org.uk) In 2003, Professor Rothwell was awarded the Pfizer Prize for Innovative Science. (www.mrc.ac.uk/public-pfizer_prize)
Professor Rothwell is an active investor in both academic and public scientific awareness. During her career she has trained over thirty PhD students, and has published numerous books, including; Brain Control of Responses to Trauma (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), Immune Responses in the Nervous System (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), and Who Wants to be a Scientist? Choosing Science as a Career (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
Professor Rothwell is a fellow member of The Royal Society, which is a leading academy in scientific enquiry, committed to scientific research and discovery. (www.royalsoc.ac.uk) Since its foundation in 1660, fellows have included Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and Stephen Hawking, placing Professor Rothwell among the greatest scientists in history. Such scientific commitment ensures that the fellowship will go on??
Submitted by: Shelley Deasey, SETPOINT Greater Manchester, 15 August 2005
