Health: Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Debate

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Department: Department of Health and Social Care

Health: Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies

Baroness Finlay of Llandaff Excerpts
Monday 13th June 2011

(13 years, 6 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Baroness Finlay of Llandaff Portrait Baroness Finlay of Llandaff
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In making decisions about funding, do the Government recognise that the research into prions and TSEs may be only the tip of the iceberg, and that prions may be implicated in a whole range of other protein-folding abnormalities, including Alzheimer’s and amyloid disease? In asking that question, I must declare an interest, because research in the field is carried out in my own university, Cardiff University.

Earl Howe Portrait Earl Howe
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My Lords, I am aware of emerging findings in that sense. We welcome, of course, any significant findings from research, and my department has indeed part-funded some of the studies that the noble Baroness may have been referring to. Future funding applications for new studies will be considered, as they always are, on a case-by-case basis. These decisions are dependent on, among other things, existing research in progress and the availability of funding. However, this is an interesting area.