As the fastest growing segment of our population is that which includes individuals over the age of 60, the burden of neurodegenerative conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease, motor neuron disease and stroke, represents a compounding medical and societal challenge. The laboratory's primary research goal is to identify and characterise the regulators of neurodegeneration and neuronal death in order to increase our understanding of molecular mechanisms. The longer-term goal is to translate these findings into candidate therapeutics to treat neurodegenerative diseases. The focus has been to characterise the cell death signalling pathway mediated by the p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75NTR), a neural death receptor which is activated in a number of neurodegenerative conditions including Alzheimer's disease and motor neuron disease.