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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The first half of the 2022 saw the European alliance for neurodegenerative research, CURE-ND, come together for a London meeting of early career researchers (ECRs), a networking and showcase event at Europe’s biggest neuroscience conference and a collective request for urgent clarity and action surrounding the UK’s association with Horizon Europe.
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A new study led by Prof Paul Matthews (UK DRI at Imperial) has identified a genetic link between damage to the main blood vessels of the heart, and brain small vessel disease, a common cause of vascular dementia.
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A new study led by Prof David Rubinsztein (UK DRI at Cambridge) has identified a way to enhance the cell’s ability to clear away misfolded proteins, such as those implicated in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.
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In a new blog post this week, Roudie Shafie, a partner at OVID Health, argues that while beating dementia is a “Herculean task”, the UK has all the necessary components in its research ecosystem to achieve real results.
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