Harry Potter author JK Rowling has buried a time capsule to mark the start of building work on a research clinic for patients with neurodegenerative diseases. The clinic, at the University of Edinburgh, is to be set up following a £10 million donation from Ms Rowling and will be named after her mother, Anne, who died of multiple sclerosis (MS) when she was 45. The buried capsule contains written accounts from patients living with multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases, as well as contributions from clinicians, commenting on current treatments and their hopes for the future.
The Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic will focus on clinical research targeting the discovery of treatments to slow progression of these types of diseases, with the hope of repairing damage.

Work at the clinic will also seek to provide insight into conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease and motor neurone disease.

Ms Rowling said: “I am both delighted and moved to be marking the start of the official building work for the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic. This time capsule captures how it is for people living with MS and other neurodegenerative diseases right now, and the current state of research. I believe that this clinic will have a huge positive effect on both of those areas in the future. I am enormously impressed in what has gone into setting up the clinic so far, and I look forward to seeing it completed and making further great strides in research and treatment.”

The clinic, which will become operational in 2012, will be housed in a purpose-built university facility next to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and within the flagship life sciences project, the Edinburgh BioQuarter.

Siddharthan Chandran, professor of neurology at the University of Edinburgh, who will lead the clinic, said: “Neurodegenerative diseases are one of the major challenges to modern medicine. Within this group of devastating disorders, MS disproportionately affects the Scottish population. All patients with these tough diseases need treatments that will slow, stop and ideally reverse damage. This clinic will pioneer a range of studies that over time will improve patients’ lives through innovative clinical research.”