On World Alzheimer’s Day, 21 September 2020, the UK DRI acknowledges all those impacted by Alzheimer’s disease and other causes of dementia. Our 600+ researchers across our seven sites are working hard to uncover the causes of dementia and identify promising treatments.
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The UK DRI team behind a high-throughput robotic coronavirus testing platform that was developed in just nine days in April, have made the full details of their setup and workflow available to others, in an effort to support the scaling-up of testing capacity across the UK.
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Our community is deeply saddened to hear that Professor Peter Davies has passed away after a long battle with cancer. UK DRI colleagues have been sharing tributes and memories of working with Peter.
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A team of researchers, led by Group Leader Dr Nir Grossman, UK DRI at Imperial, has been awarded $1.5 million by the USA-based Alzheimer's Association’s Part the Cloud fund, to accelerate the application of a new non-invasive deep brain stimulation therapy for people with Alzheimer’s disease.
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Researchers led by Prof Caleb Webber, Group Leader at UK DRI at Cardiff, have studied the genes of more than 6,000 cells from a brain region called the substantia nigra, which is damaged in Parkinson’s disease. The team found that genes associated with increased risk of developing the condition were more active in dopaminergic neurons, suggesting that these cells should be targeted for future therapeutic intervention.
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A team of researchers led by Prof Siddharthan Chandran, UK DRI at Edinburgh, has published a perspective review evaluating whether poor clearance of toxic proteins from the brain contributes to the progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Focusing on the glymphatic system, the model proposed in the review could offer additional avenues to further explore features of the diseases, with the ultimate aim of uncovering novel therapeutics.
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Dr Soyon Hong, Dr Tim Bartels and Prof Adrian Isaacs, all from UK DRI at UCL, have each been awarded a Collaborative Pairs Pilot Projects award by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative as part of a world-wide call.
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As with research across the world, the Covid-19 pandemic has greatly disrupted work to combat some of the most pressing health challenges we face as a society, including dementia. At our Care Research and Technology Centre, efforts quickly shifted to tackling the urgent need for mass testing and finding inventive ways of supporting the dementia community that they work so closely with. In order to rise to the challenge effectively, the team quickly realised they would need to draw on skills and support from elsewhere in the UK DRI network. Here we hear from two UK DRI researchers who were seconded to the centre in order to help with these initiatives.
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Having carefully evaluated the risks, feasibility, and needs of the neuroscience community with respect to the ongoing Covid-19 situation, the British Neuroscience Association Trustees, in agreement with UK DRI as Festival Partner, have today (12 August) taken the decision hold the April 2021 Festival as an online-only event. Additionally, the online Festival will now run between Monday 12 April and Thursday 15 April 2021, and BNA2023 will be held in Brighton.
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Researchers led by Prof Giovanna Mallucci from UK DRI at Cambridge, have shown that modulation of a pathway involved in the production of cellular proteins is a potentially safe and viable therapy for dementia. The proof-of-concept study, published today (11 August) in the journal Science Signaling, unlocks opportunities to develop drugs targeting this pathway, which is often disrupted in people with neurodegenerative diseases.
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Led by 28 dementia experts, the report builds on the nine risk factors identified in the 2017 Lancet Commission on dementia prevention, intervention and care. An up-to-date analysis of evidence on the prevention of dementia is presented, laying out a set of policies and lifestyle changes to achieve this.
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A team of researchers, including Dr Tim Bartels, UK DRI at UCL, have today (30 July 2020) received a ‘Ken Griffin Alpha-synuclein Imaging Competition’ award from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF). The competition, which will award $10 million in total, is designed to encourage a scientific race in pursuit of an imaging tracer to visualise the key protein alpha-synuclein in the living brain of people with Parkinson’s disease.
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We are delighted to announce the latest recipients of our cross-centre postdoctoral awards – a scheme to stimulate exciting new academic relationships and projects that unlock our understanding of dementia. The projects awarded this round will investigate how our brain cells protect themselves, why certain cell populations are more vulnerable to disease than others and whether enhancing sleep could improve symptoms at the earliest stages of dementia.
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Dr Amy Smith is a Research Associate working on microglia heterogeneity in dementia and is part of the Multi-'Omics Atlas Project based at UK DRI at Imperial. In this Q&A, Dr Adesola Bello, a Research Assistant in the microbiome and brain health group, speaks to Amy about the role of microglia and inflammation in dementia, collaborative projects and her expectations for a return to the lab.
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Researchers led by Prof Bart De Strooper (UK DRI Director) and Dr Mark Fiers at the VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain & Disease Research in Leuven, Belgium, have used pioneering technologies to investigate what happens in brain cells in the direct vicinity of protein plaques in Alzheimer’s disease. Using a mouse model of the condition and human brain tissue, the team’s findings suggest that brain cells work together to first provide a protective response that becomes damaging in the later stages of the disease. The results may help to determine the optimal window of opportunity to therapeutically intervene during disease progression.
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The UK DRI has, along with 99 organisations and researchers from across the EU and the UK, signed a statement that sets out how negotiators could secure an agreement on UK participation in EU funding programmes such as Horizon Europe after the UK leaves the European Union.
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We are excited to announce an ambitious new partnership with the Deep Dementia Phenotyping (DEMON) Network. The aim of this new collaboration is to rapidly speed up the transformation of data into clinical and biologically relevant knowledge in neurodegeneration research, to strengthen links with clinical researchers and industry, and to drive forward experimental dementia research using data science and artificial intelligence.
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A viva voce is the final milestone of the PhD experience. After years of work and an often gruelling period of data analysis and writing, a PhD candidate attends an oral assessment to defend their thesis before a panel of experts in the field. For many, the viva can already be a nerve-wracking experience, but how have the additional lockdown restrictions affected this process? To find out more about the experience of the virtual thesis defence, we spoke to recent PhD graduates Dr Darija Soltic, Dr Jonas Mechtersheimer and Dr Daniel Jutzi based at UK DRI at King’s. Here they share their reflections on the process and tips for conducting a successful viva in the virtual space.
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A study co-authored by UK DRI researchers has today (10 July) outlined a new cell-based system for studying Alzheimer’s disease, which could accelerate drug testing. The technology was also used to identify that the gene BACE2 may be involved in suppressing the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, opening avenues for new therapeutics.
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A new UCL and UCLH-led study, supported in part by UK DRI, has found that neurological complications of Covid-19 can include delirium, brain inflammation, stroke and nerve damage. The findings suggest that in some cases these symptoms can even occur in the absence of the severe respiratory symptoms characteristic of Covid-19.
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