Collaboration and connection are at the heart of how the UK DRI takes on the challenge of making breakthroughs in dementia research. Prioritising inclusivity isn’t just the right thing to do – diversity of experience, perspectives and backgrounds increase innovation and significance of research output.
World Health Organization 2020 data estimates that approximately 50 million people worldwide are living with dementia, with nearly 60% living in low- and middle-income countries. The total number is projected to reach 82 million by 2030, with most of the increase seen in the low- and middle-income countries. These numbers signify how dementia is a global problem.
Despite the statistics, dementia research is still mainly conducted in high-income countries. Understandably, these countries have the economic privilege to invest a significant amount into research. Dementia, however, is often still not a research priority even in these countries.
We learn from the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic that we need worldwide collaboration to address a global problem. We have also seen how resource and knowledge sharing can expedite progress and should benefit everyone.
In their effort to defeat dementia, our researchers work with worldwide experts. Some of our researchers and their collaborations include Prof Valentina Escott-Price (Russia), Prof Paul Matthews (Singapore), Dr Sang-Eun Lee (Korea), Prof Markus Wenk (Singapore) and Dr Nathan Skene (India).
In this article, we take a closer look into three UK DRI collaborations to find out more about the benefit of research diversification.
Diversity in samples leads to better research
Prof Henrik Zetterberg from UK DRI at UCL collaborated with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology on a project that was recently published in Alzheimer’s and Dementia.
Using techniques developed by Prof Zetterberg, the collaborators performed large-scale profiling of proteins in the blood from a Hong Kong Chinese patient cohort to develop a panel of biomarkers for screening and diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.
They examined if and how their cohort differs from commonly used cohorts of European descents, based on emerging evidence of ethnic differences in the composition of proteins found in the blood. Contrary to this initial hypothesis, the changes in blood proteins (measured by the biomarker test) were similar across the cohorts.
This partnership successfully validated the use of biomarkers to screen and diagnose the patient cohort, confirming the robustness of the test and its suitability for use across different racial or ethnic groups.
