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All the latest developments
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In conversation with Dr Johanna Jackson, UK DRI at Imperial

Dr Johanna Jackson is a senior scientific project manager for the Multi-'omics Atlas project based at UK DRI at Imperial and the Athena Swan lead for the department of Brain Sciences. In this Q&A, Ketevan Alania, a first year PhD student at the Interventional Systems Neuroscience Lab speaks to Johanna about her career journey so far, the aims of the Multi-'omics brain atlas project and her role in promoting gender equality in science.

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Comment: Government lays out UK ‘Research & Development Roadmap’

The Government has today (1 July) set out its ‘Research and Development Roadmap’ to ‘cement the UK as the world’s leading research and science superpower’. At the forefront of the long-term plans is the commitment to creating ground-breaking research, attracting global talent, and cutting unnecessary red tape to ensure the UK is the best place in the world for scientists, researchers and entrepreneurs to live, work and innovate. UK DRI Director Prof Bart De Strooper comments in response to the announcement.

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In conversation with Dr Nathan Skene, UK DRI at Imperial

Dr Nathan Skene is a Group Leader at UK DRI at Imperial and Lecturer in the Department of Brain Sciences. Nathan’s work focuses on deciphering the human genetics underlying neurobiology- including that of cognitive traits, brain function, and neurodegenerative disease. In this Q&A, Charlotte Luff, a MRC-funded PhD student at UK DRI at Imperial, talks to Nathan about his interest in computational neuroscience, identifying the cell types that cause brain diseases and the fundamental role of genetics in uncovering the causes of dementia.

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UK DRI statement on Black Lives Matter

The shocking events of the past few weeks have drawn into sharp focus the need for global reflection and meaningful change. We strongly condemn all acts of racism, and the mobilisation of so many against it has provided a wake-up call to assess our own actions and drive change for a better institute. Racism takes many forms and we all have a duty to act where we can.

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‘Collaborations are like experiments; it takes a few false starts before you set up a good one’

Anyone studying dementia knows that unravelling the intricacies behind it will be a long and complicated process, spanning multiple fields and disciplines. That’s why those who want to take their research a step further look naturally to the expertise of others to help. But how do we find suitable candidates to complement our own work? What drives a successful partnership? We spoke to three UK DRI Group Leaders about their experiences of collaboration.

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New study on synaptic receptors highlights potential target for Alzheimer’s disease treatment

Researchers led by Prof Kei Cho, UK DRI at King’s, have uncovered an important signalling pathway that links amyloid beta with disrupted neuronal communication in Alzheimer’s disease. The study, published this month in Brain Communications, identifies a potential target for disease-modifying treatments in moderate stages of the condition.

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Collaborative studies shed light on protein aggregates in Alzheimer’s disease and Dementia with Lewy bodies

New research by Prof David Klenerman, UK DRI Group Leader at Cambridge, and involving two other UK DRI centres, has provided better understanding of toxic protein aggregates and the disease mechanisms by which they cause damage to the brain. This new knowledge may help with the development of effective treatments for those living with dementia.

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Urgent need for coronavirus testing in care homes highlighted by public health investigation involving UK DRI researchers

A team of academics from the UK DRI has worked with GPs, infectious diseases experts, a geriatric clinical outreach team and Local Authority colleagues to undertake a coronavirus outbreak investigation in four London nursing homes. The study highlights high rates of infection and death from the virus, and urges specific, tailored measures to manage spread of the disease.

A conversation with Dr Sarah Marzi, UK DRI at Imperial

Dr Sarah Marzi is an Edmond and Lily Safra Research Fellow and UK DRI Career Development Fellow at the UK DRI at Imperial, using genome-wide genetic and epigenetic techniques as well as innovative bioinformatic and statistical approaches to investigate epigenetic dysregulation in disease. In this Q&A, Aisling McGarry, Research Technician in UK DRI at Imperial, talks to Sarah about her interest in epigenomics and Parkinson's disease, and her experience with working from home during this period.

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UK DRI Director elected to the prestigious Academy of Medical Sciences Fellowship

It has been announced today that Prof Bart De Strooper, UK DRI Director, is one of fifty leading biomedical and health scientists elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences Fellowship for his work investigating dementia.

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How UK DRI researchers are tackling the challenge of Covid-19

Looking back to the start of the year, few of us would have predicted the extraordinary times we are currently living through. Even for scientists, who are acutely aware of the power wielded by the natural world, the transformation brought about by this invisible invader has been startling. Here we look at some of the ways that UK DRI researchers have been responding to the crisis.

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Adding new dimensions: Spotlight on Prof Valentina Escott-Price

Prof Valentina Escott-Price, UK DRI Group Leader at Cardiff, studied mathematics at St Petersburg University in Russia before embarking on her PhD in statistics at Cardiff University. She has helped discover 11 new susceptibility loci for Alzheimer’s disease. Here she talks to us about big data, working in high dimensional space and the challenge of persuading others to share their datasets.

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A perfect ten: Announcing second round recipients of UK DRI pilot projects

We are thrilled to announce the 10 awardees in the second round of the UK DRI Pilot Projects programme – an initiative designed to encourage UK DRI post docs to consider new and innovative ways to tackle dementia.

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Introducing UK DRI’s new research ‘themes’: A Q&A with our new Research Theme Project Manager, Sarmi Sri

To meet the challenge of bringing together skill sets and common interests across the institute’s dispersed network, we have developed the official UK DRI research themes. To learn more, we spoke to Research Theme Project Manager at HQ, Dr Sarmi Sri.

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UK DRI researcher part of team to discover that the gut may play a role in development of Parkinson’s disease

Dr Nathan Skene, a UK DRI researcher based at Imperial, is part of a team that has discovered that cells from the gut's nervous system are involved in Parkinson's disease, indicating that the disease may start there.

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UK DRI academic plays key role in development of new blood test for Alzheimer’s disease

Professor Henrik Zetterberg, a Group Leader at our centre at UCL, is part of a team at the University of Gothenburg that has developed a new blood test for Alzheimer’s disease.

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Coronavirus testing: Robotic platform developed by UK DRI researchers set to significantly increase UK testing capacity

A robotic testing platform developed in just nine days by UK DRI researchers could substantially increase the UK’s capacity to test people for coronavirus.

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Industrious innovators: First Eisai / UK DRI postdoctoral research awards announced

UK DRI and Eisai, one of the world's leading research-based pharmaceutical companies, are delighted to announce the first recipients for the post-doctoral research programme on dementia. This first-of-its-kind industry collaboration for the UK DRI aims to deliver innovative research that translates into improvements in diagnosis, treatment and prevention of all types of dementia.

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UK DRI and coronavirus – Updated Information

The coronavirus pandemic represents an unprecedented challenge. The situation is rapidly evolving. We will update this page with the latest information relevant to UK DRI activities.

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Comparison of motor neurone disease models suggests key disease mechanism may depend on gene affected

Researchers led by Prof Giampietro Schiavo, UK DRI at UCL, have used two new mouse models of motor neurone disease (MND) to show that early disease mechanisms may differ depending on the causative gene. Deficits in transport along nerve cells preceded symptoms in one but not the other model, suggesting that therapeutics may have to be tailored to individuals according to their genes.