Dr. Owen trained in undergraduate medicine at Cambridge University and in clinical medicine at University College London, qualifying in 2004. After three years as a junior doctor, in 2007, he entered specialist training in clinical pharmacology and began a PhD at Imperial College London. His PhD examined the use of positron emission tomography (imaging technique; PET) to measure microglial (type of brain cell) density which led to nine first author papers and two patents (one as the lead inventor) and he was awarded the 2013 Society of Nuclear Medicine Young Investigator Award for Neurosciences. Dr. Owen is currently a clinical lecturer in clinical pharmacology and his research interest is focused on the link between the innate immune response and neurodegeneration. His training has provided him with experience in pharmacology, radioligand binding, experimental medicine, clinical trials, PET imaging and drug development. He has little direct experience with using pre-clinical models and therefore, for this project, has collaborated with Professor David Dexter, whose laboratory has an extensive and successful track record in this field. They will ascertain whether XBD173 (an off-patent drug which has been used in clinical trials for an unrelated condition) can be repurposed as a medication for Parkinson's.