Returning in person for the first time since 2019, our annual conference Connectome took place in Brighton earlier this month. More than 600 UK DRI researchers from our seven centres across the UK gathered together for an event packed full of exciting science, with opportunities to make connections and spark new ideas.
Today is LGBTQ+ STEM Day, an opportunity to celebrate and highlight the work of LGBTQ+ people in science and recognise the barriers that they face. We spoke to Dr Alexi Nott (UK DRI at Imperial) about his hopes and goals for the LGBTQ+ Allies Network which he recently set up within his department at Imperial.
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After six years as Director of the UK DRI, Prof Bart De Strooper is stepping down to focus on his research.
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We are proud to announce that nine UK DRI researchers have featured in this year’s Highly Cited Researcher 2022 list from Clarivate. The annual ranking identifies researchers who have demonstrated significant influence in their chosen field or fields through the publication of multiple highly cited papers during the last decade.
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In a press release today, pharmaceutical company Roche announced results from its phase 3 trials of immunotherapy drug ganteneurumab. The results show that the drug failed to slow cognitive decline in people with early-stage Alzheimer's disease.
Dr Soyon Hong, Dr Tim Bartels, and Prof Adrian Isaacs, all from UK DRI at UCL, have each been awarded further funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), for phase 2 of the organisation’s Collaborative Pairs Programme.
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Ahead of the government’s Autumn Statement, the UK DRI has joined a call led by the Academy of Medical Sciences, for the Chancellor to place medical and health research at the heart of plans for growth.
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For the 5th anniversary of the UK DRI, we introduced a series of special prizes to recognise the efforts and achievements of staff across the Institute over the past year. The Directors awarded certificates and personal awards during the conclusion to Connectome 2022, highlighting those individuals excelling in the categories of computational reproducibility, 3R’s, publications, posters and engagement.
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When thinking about the cells that are involved in neurodegenerative diseases, it is easy to zero in on neurons – the fundamental units of the brain that receive and transmit sensory information. But there is strong evidence to indicate that other cells are also involved in the development and progression of dementia. Among them are macroglia cells; the focus of the UK DRI’s newest research theme.
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Researchers have uncovered a new biological pathway that could be linked to Alzheimer’s disease, in a study led by Prof Paul Elliott (UK DRI at Imperial). The findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), provide new insight into the underlying mechanisms of the disease, and could offer targets for future drug discovery.
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How health inequalities are impacting people with dementia, and how research can help to address this was the subject of a lively webinar hosted by the UK DRI on Thursday 20 October.
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Small, aggregated proteins capable of entering cells have been shown to cause distinctive toxic effects in Parkinson’s disease and dementia with Lewy bodies, according to a new study led by Dr Yu Ye (UK DRI at Imperial). The findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), offer useful insight into the underlying mechanisms of these diseases, and highlight potential future targets for disease detection and therapeutic intervention.
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Prof Bart De Strooper, UK DRI Director, has today been elected to the U.S. National Academy of Medicine (NAM), for his work in understanding the mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease, ‘in an unrelenting search for therapeutic targets that can help patients’.
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We are delighted to announce a generous £7.5 million gift from the Michael Uren Foundation that will drive forward four experimental research projects at the UK DRI, aiming to improve diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and develop effective new avenues for treatment.
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Launched in March 2021, the UK DRI Translation Award programme was established to kick start the early development of projects with high translational potential, bringing us closer to new technologies and treatments for dementia. We caught up with a selection of the successful past recipients to discover the impact these awards have had on their research.
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Today the pharmaceutical company Eisai, in collaboration with Biogen, has announced positive results from its phase 3 trial of lecanemab for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Eisai reports, using a numeric scale to quantify severity of symptoms, that the drug slowed rate of cognitive decline by 27% compared with a placebo.
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We are delighted to announce that Prof Nick Fox (UK DRI at UCL) has been awarded the European Grand Prix 2022 by the French Alzheimer Research Foundation.
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Every year, the number of people with dementia increases, with estimates suggesting more than 1 million people in the UK will be living with the condition by 2030. As this figure increases, there is an even greater need for breakthroughs in developing treatments and improving lives. So how close are we to new therapeutics? And what innovations will help us get there? This World Alzheimer's Day, we asked UK DRI researchers for their predictions on what we can expect over the next decade, and where they see the most promising advances.
A new study led by Prof. Giampietro Schiavo (UK DRI at UCL) has uncovered why certain types of motor neurons are differentially affected in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The findings, published in the journal Acta Neuropathologica Communications, could open up new avenues for drug discovery and treatments for this disease.
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Today, the UK DRI published a new report, detailing the impact of scientific research on health inequalities for people affected by dementia. As the report launches at the start of World Alzheimer’s Month, the UK DRI is urging the Government to prioritise funding for scientific innovation, to facilitate larger dementia trials, remove barriers that stop people taking part in research and close the gap on health inequalities.
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