Winner’s £1m prize for migraine research

AN AUSTRALIAN-BRITISH neuroscientist is among four winners of a top accolade celebrating their work on pioneering migraine research.

The group, from the UK, Denmark, Sweden and the US, are credited with discovering a key mechanism that causes migraine, leading to revolutionary new treatments.

Their work stretches some 40 years and has specifically focused on women, who are disproportionately affected by the condition. Peter Goadsby, a professor at King’s College London, said he was “very honoured” to receive the Brain Prize, regarded as the “Nobel” of neuroscience and worth around £1.1m.

More than a billion people in the world suffer with migraines and three females for every male experience them, he said. “Migraine is common, it’s disabling, that’s why it’s important,” he said.

“When we started out our research, people would look at you - well they still do a little bit - they look at you as crazy, that you were going to take an interest in headache disorders.”

YORK’S LACK of affordable housing is a “direct result” of the council delaying progress on the city’s Local Plan project, property bosses warn, saying the situation is becoming an “embarrassment”.

Government planning experts have also hit out at York Council for hold-ups on the plan, which outlines where new homes and businesses can be built. But the council says it is “fully committed” to the project. Hearings took place in 2019 and local plan inspectors have since asked for further information.

Steve Secker, chair of York Property Forum, part of York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, said members are “as frustrated as the inspectors seem to be with the very slow progress”.

He said: “The lack of new offices and homes being built, especially affordable housing, is a direct result of the Local Plan stalling over recent months and the council need to provide all information asked by the inspectors as soon as possible. We have raised the issue of inadequate resourcing in the planning department previously and this seems to be an ongoing issue for the council, which is shown in this lack of progress.”

Coun Nigel Ayre said: “Additional resources have been invested to progress the Local Plan, so we can ensure delivery against the timetable and most importantly, secure a Local Plan that achieves the right balance for York. The inspector’s latest letter, received yesterday, acknowledges again the very tough challenges we’ve worked through over the last 15 months and I am pleased that the inspector has accepted our timetable to take the process forward.”