Genetics company Oxford Biomedica has announced "significant advances" in its attempt to develop a treatment for Parkinson's disease.

The company, based at Oxford Science Park, presented its latest results to the Forum for European Neurosciences 2000 at Brighton.

Its scientists have used a horse virus called equine infectious anaemia to transfer therapeutic genes to human brain cells. The new genes are designed to re-programme the brain and halt the degeneration associated with Parkinson's.