Our impact

The Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN) is unlike any other in the world. Explore over a decade of advances in neuroscience that have had, and continue to have, a positive impact on the lives of patients and their families.

10 years of impact

Professor Dame Pamela Shaw, Director of SITraN, and Professor Koen Lamberts, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield, tell us about the last decade of progress.

Research achievements

Patient model systems of neurodegenerative diseases

Researchers at SITraN are developing models of cells in the nervous system using patient skin cells. And they’re using these models to find new potential treatments.

Creating new models for diseases

State-of-the-art drug screens for neurodegenerative diseases

What if a drug already being safely used by the population could also help treat a different, unrelated disease? With thousands of drugs available, and more being developed in labs across the globe, drug screening is vital to make sure potential treatments for diseases are not being missed.

Pioneering new treatments

Graphic depicting patient quality of life

Enhancing MND patients' quality of life

Every year motor neuron disease (MND) claims the independence of over 2,000 people in the UK. Researchers from the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN) are working to enhance patient quality of life while we wait for disease-modifying therapies to come through.

Supporting patients worldwide

A turning point for motor neurone disease

An investigational drug has shown promising signs of slowing the progression of a type of motor neurone disease.

A milestone treatment

Graphic depicting patient involvement in research

Patient and public involvement in MND research

Our aim is to make lives better for patients and their families. A key component of that is making sure people living with neurodegenerative disorders have access to the information they need to make decisions about their care.

MyMND resources

Detecting and slowing the progress of dementia

Scientists at SITraN are striving to find ways to detect dementia much earlier and investigating potential treatments to slow the progress of the disease.

Our research into dementia

Precision medicine for Parkinson’s Disease

By gaining a better understanding of Parkinson's disease, we are working towards potential neuroprotective treatments which could slow down the progression of the disease.

Personalised treatments

Pioneering stem cell therapy for multiple sclerosis

We are pioneering a new treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS). Stem cell transplantation from the patient's own bone marrow has had a life-changing impact on those with the relapsing remitting form of the disease.

How the new therapy works