Posted by With immense sadness we have to announce that an outstanding Scientist, Dr. David Begley passed away on Thursday 6th July 2023.
Dr. David Begley was world-wide recognized neurophysiologist, a Senior Lecturer in Physiology at the King’s College, London. Under his leadership a dedicated laboratory was run for the investigations of the function and properties of blood-brain-barrier and for targeted drug delivery to the Central Nervous System (CNS).
Begley’s research had a special focus on the lysosomal lipid storage diseases, too, and because of his great knowledge and expertise in this particular field, he was involved in the multi-year research and development program aiming at the optimisation of administration route, type and unit doses of 2-hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin (HPBCD) for the treatment of the Nieman-Pick Type C (NPC) disease. His outstanding achievement undoubtedly contributed to the successful designation and approval of HPBCD as an orphan drug for the treatment of the rare lysosomal storage disease.
We, at CycloLab, had the honour and pleasure to invite Dr. Begley to our laboratories, to learn from him more about BBB crossing opportunities. He generously accepted our invitation and delivered a really seminal lecture on the functions of BBB and the way cyclodextrins cross this barrier. After his excellent lecture, we had a stimulating onsite discussion on possible and most feasible administration routes of HPBCDs for the efficient delivery of the carbohydrate to the CNS. David convinced us on the need of a peptide targetor-tagged-HPBCD, which – as he predicted – would cross BBB to a significantly higher extent. Figure 1 is a photo taken during Begley’s lecture at CycloLab with a suggested structure of his recommended targetor-tagged HPBCD.
David Begley with his suggested peptidyl-HPBCD structure during his presentation
Dr. Begley was guest professor in Frankfurt, Germany and scientific advisor of a number of pharmaceutical companies working on delivery of drugs to CNS. He was also organizer and chairman of Gordon Conference on „Barriers of Central Nervous System”.
He was the most acknowledged expert and opinion leader in the field of Blood Brain Barrier.
In 2007, together with Dr. Maurizio Scarpa, he co-founded the „Brains for Brain foundation” a networking in BBB scientists, neurophysiologists and neurologist around the Globe to find new ways for efficient delivery of pharmaceutical actives across the BBB.
Dr. Begley was an amazing intellect, the genuine English gentleman, an old-fashioned scientist with modern ideas, a great mind. He will be greatly missed.
Farewell Dr. Begley, rest in peace!
Featured picture: https://www.brains4brain.eu/david-begley/