The National CJD Surveillance Unit was set up in 1990 in response to a recommendation in the Report of the Working Party on Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (The SouthWood Committee). The surveillance unit is funded directly by the Department of Health and the Scottish Executive Health Department. The primary aim of the project is to monitor CJD in order to identify any change in the pattern of this disease that might be attributable to the emergence of Bovine Spongiform Encephaloapthy.
The Unit also recieves research funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) programme of research into the Biology of the Spongiform Encephalopathies. The present grant is for approximately one hundred and sixty thousand pounds over three years. The abstract of the present project is given below.
A study of the neuronal pathology in CJD is proposed employing novel automated microscopic techniques for quantification of cellular populations and 3-dimensional reconstruction in relation to macroscopic MRI brain images. The findings will be compared to other neuronal abnormalities as revealed by immunocytochemistry and confocal laser microscopy (with specific reference to microglial interactions) and to clinical features in sporadic, familial and iatrogenic CJD cases. The results will provide new information on the pathogenic mechanisms and patterns of neuronal loss in the 3 main subgroups of CJD, allow a fuller understanding of the potential influence of the BSE agent on man.