David Burn, Professor of Movement Disorder Neurology and Director of Institute for Ageing and Health (IAH)

Prof David Burn

A vision of turning cutting edge medical science into clinical excellence is being realised in Newcastle.

Pioneering research at the Institute of Ageing and Health (IAH) at Newcastle University into diseases of old age has been a catalyst that has brought the University to the attention of the world for its wide-ranging work across the spectrum of ageing.

The IAH has become the flagship within the University’s Faculty for Medical Sciences for ground-breaking scientific research into the causes of ageing and related disease, along with multi-disciplinary studies into potential treatments and cures.

Maintaining the flagship status and taking the achievements of the Institute to new heights is the ambition of Professor David Burn, its director since 2011.

A beacon of teaching excellence

One of his principle aims is to enable the IAH to become a beacon of teaching excellence – attracting the best minds and grooming the next generation of researchers and clinicians to make a real difference to the health and well-being of older people.

"Our real mission in life is to face up to the challenges of ageing, and we have to keep growing our business in every area," he says.

"This will enable people to live longer with better quality time, or disease free time; to enjoy those years rather than feeling that there is a sort of dark hole waiting to swallow them up."

Professor Burn pays tribute to his eminent predecessors in charge of the Institute, its founder Professor Jim Edwardson and his successor Professor Tom Kirkwood.  "It’s definitely like standing on the shoulders of giants to be in this job," he said.

Campus for Ageing and Vitality in Newcastle

The IAH holds a pivotal position on the Campus for Ageing and Vitality in Newcastle, created through the powerful alliance between the University and the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Around £45m has been invested in a cluster of new research buildings that form the Academic Quarter on the Campus. The eventual plan is to add a Business Quarter and a Retail Quarter to what is the former site of Newcastle General Hospital.

Funding for developing and equipping the state-of-the-art research facilities has come from a variety of sources. These include the:

  • Wellcome Trust
  • Wolfson Foundation
  • Medical Research Council
  • National Institute of Health Research
  • European Regional Development Fund

As well as money from the University itself and the NHS Trust.

Clinics for Research and Service and Themed Assessments (CRESTA)

One of the innovations that Professor Burn has helped create at the IAH is Cresta Clinics – Cresta being an acronym for Clinics for Research and Service and Themed Assessments.

These are located on the ground floor of the Biomedical Research Building, completed at the beginning of 2012.

"They are really designed to be a sort of one-stop-shop of excellence for older people with complex diseases, who can be seen in a multi-disciplinary setting," he explained. "It’s an environment that lends itself well to research."

Professor Burn, who is from the North East, combines being Director of the IAH with being Professor of Movement Disorder Neurology at the University.

One of the main areas of his own research is into some of the more difficult aspects of Parkinson’s Disease. He also deals with rare conditions such as progressive supranuclear palsy from which the actor and comedian Dudley Moore suffered, and multiple system atrophy that claimed the life of actor David Niven.

"One of the things I’m particularly keen to push on with is to develop an academic care home and rehabilitation centre, perhaps complete with leading edge assistive technologies. This would also involve the idea of being a beacon of excellence for teaching.

"We could teach people how to manage someone with dementia. That could be disseminated and cascaded down to care homes in the North East and beyond. It is part of our vision of making a real difference to the care and well-being of older people."

Contact David Burn about his research.

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