CCBS researchers join UK Dementia Research Institute
April 2017: Professors Siddharthan Chandran and Joanna Wardlaw are two of the researchers who will form the UK Dementia Research Institute at The University of Edinburgh, part of a £250M nationwide network.
The University of Edinburgh is to join five other institutions to form the UK Dementia Research Institute, a £250m initiative bringing together world-leading expertise and cutting-edge facilities.
The institute is a joint initiative to advance dementia research led by the Medical Research Council (MRC) with founding charity partners, Alzheimer’s Society and Alzheimer’s Research UK.
The UK DRI at the University of Edinburgh team will be led by Professor Giles Hardingham; the other programme leads are Professor Siddharthan Chandran, Professor Joanna Wardlaw, Dr Tara Spires-Jones and Dr Barry McColl.
Disease prevention
The Edinburgh team will study different cell types in the brain, identifying how they behave in healthy brains and studying how dementia affects them. The team hopes to find new ways of preventing neurodegeneration.
The UK DRI will enable us to join forces to accelerate research into neurodegenerative diseases leading to dementia. Our responsibility to dementia patients and their families, both current and future, is to use this opportunity to find new ways to prevent or slow progression of this devastating group of diseases.
UK initiative
The UK DRI has been established in response to the Government’s 2020 Challenge on Dementia. Its mission is to find new ways of diagnosing and treating dementias – a group of neurodegenerative diseases which include Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases.
Researchers will identify strategies to help prevent dementia before symptoms appear. They will also investigate new approaches to improve care for people living with the conditions.
The institute is headquartered at University College London (UCL) with additional centres at the Universities of Edinburgh and Cambridge, Cardiff University, Imperial College London and King’s College London. It will be directed by Professor Bart de Strooper of UCL.
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