uk dementia research institute

UK Dementia Research Institute

The UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI) was established in 2017 with funding from the Medical Research Council (MRC), Alzheimer’s Society and Alzheimer’s Research UK. The UK DRI brings together world-leading expertise in biomedical, care and translational dementia research. It carries out research relevant to all dementias, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, vascular dementia, Huntington’s disease and beyond.

The UK DRI Hub is based at University College London, and Centres are hosted at University of Cambridge, Cardiff University, The University of Edinburgh, Imperial College London, King’s College London and the University of Surrey.

Find out more about the UK Dementia Research Institute .

Last updated: 12 September 2023

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UK Dementia Research Institute at King’s College London

Dementia refers to a set of symptoms that may include memory loss or difficulties in thinking, problem-solving or language. There is a common misconception that dementia is a normal part of ageing. Dementia only appears when our brains are impaired by neurodegenerative diseases. These diseases cause a loss of functions in brain cells. While these diseases mostly affect the older population, they can also affect younger individuals. The most known neurodegenerative diseases include Alzheimer’s Disease, Frontotemporal Dementia and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. In Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, mainly the systems that control muscles are impaired, which affects movement, breathing and swallowing. 

Over the past 15 years, neurodegenerative diseases have become the leading cause of death worldwide, and the number of cases continues to rise in the UK. There are still no effective treatments for the neurodegenerative diseases that cause dementia, and many questions remain as to the root causes.  

The  UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI)  is the single biggest investment the UK has ever made in neurodegenerative diseases, thanks to £290 million from founding funders the Medical Research Council (MRC), Alzheimer’s Society and Alzheimer’s Research UK. Revolutionary in scale and scope, and with collaboration at its core, the UK DRI brings together diverse expertise across seven centres nationally to accelerate the discovery, development and delivery of interventions that will help diagnose, treat and ultimately prevent dementia. 

The UK DRI at King's was opened in August 2017 and is led by Centre Director Professor Jernej Ule. The mission of our centre is to understand the earliest molecular and pathophysiological events that initiate neurodegeneration and develop novel therapeutic strategies.  

Our major disease interest is on Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Although distinct in the areas of the nervous system affected, these diseases do share common clinical pathological features. Our research looks at the similarities and differences between these diseases to find the keys to slow or halt loss of brain cells at the earliest stages.  

Our key questions:

• At the cellular level, which proteins in the human body are affected by neurodegenerative disease - what are the causes and consequences?
• How does  disease   affect  the  functions  of brain cells  such as the  communication  between neurons or the structural integrity of the neurons?  
• What are the common  pathways affected across  different neurodegenerative diseases?  
• What tools and technologies can we develop to improve the diagnosis and treatment of  neurodegenerative disease ?  
• Can we use gene therapy to prevent or half the progression of neurodegenerative disease, and can we improve the way they are delivered? ?

The five UK DRI Group Leaders and their research focuses:

• Professor Jernej Ule (Centre Director) : Modulaton of protein-RNA complexes in in neurodegeneration
• Professor Chris Shaw : Gene discovery and gene therapy
• Dr Marc-David Ruepp:  Altered RNA metabolism in neurodegeneration
• Dr Sarah Mizielinska: Nucleocytoplasmic transport dysfunction in FTD and ALS
• Dr Andrea Serio: Bioengineered platforms to model neurodegeneration in single cells and circuits”

Learn more:

• About our centre
• Our research

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UK Dementia Research Institute

The UK DRI is a landmark investment in dementia research, which brings together government and charity funding to transform treatment and care for people with all forms of dementia. First announced in 2015, work is now underway at the UK DRI where teams of talented scientists are driving progress in a range of innovative  scientific programmes and providing a vital boost research efforts in dementia.

As a founding funder, we joined forces with the Medical Research Council and Alzheimer’s Society to make a long-term investment in the UK DRI, to support the people and ideas that will inspire our search for the first life-changing treatments for dementia.

What is the UK DRI?

The UK DRI is an Institute made up of one hub and six centres across the UK, all working towards a shared vision of changing the outlook for people with dementia. Once at full strength, the UK DRI will be home to over 700 researchers from a range of disciplines.

With your help, we’ve already doubled the number of dementia researchers in the UK since 2008, but they’re still outnumbered. For every one dementia researcher, four work on cancer.

The UK DRI is a fantastic opportunity to attract talented researchers to work on this important health condition.

What research is happening there?

The UK DRI aims to build a solid base of discovery science, feeding its discoveries into existing initiatives like our Drug Discovery Alliance to ensure they’re fast-tracked towards benefits for people with dementia and their family as soon as possible.

There are over 50 innovative programmes happening across the hub plus six UK DRI centres, each tackling dementia from a different angle – from molecular biology to brain imaging.

UK DRI scientists will be driving forward research into areas including:

• The genetics underpinning dementia
• The transport of proteins, how they behave and how they go wrong in dementia.
• The role of the brain’s immune system.

Just as w e realised that a whole range of factors is responsible for how cancers occur and progress in an individual, we now need to take a more holistic view of dementia. We have a huge amount of discovery science to do – and I want to see real surprises." Prof Bart De Strooper, Director, UK DRI

How can I support the UK DRI?

Alzheimer’s Research UK has made a £50m commitment to support the UK DRI and this is only possible through your donations. If you would like to support research in the UK DRI by donating to Alzheimer’s Research UK, click here .

UK DRI Director Bart De Strooper talks about his hopes for the UK DRI on our blog

Support pioneering dementia research

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UK Dementia Research Institute

The UK Dementia Research Institute at The University of Edinburgh is one of seven centres across the UK, seeking to find new ways to diagnose and treat the condition.

Launched in 2017, the UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI) is the single biggest investment the UK has ever made in dementia thanks to founding funders the Medical Research Council (MRC), Alzheimer's Society and Alzheimer's Research UK.

The UK DRI breaks new ground by bringing together world-leading expertise in biomedical, care and translational dementia research in a national institute currently made up of over 750 researchers and a support team of over 50, all growing rapidly.

The Institute is led by Professor Siddharthan Chandran. It is structured so that our researchers are connected, wherever their labs are based. Having seven Centres located across the UK allows us to bring people together for shared scientific inspiration, whilst making the most of cutting-edge tools and infrastructure locally.

The Centres are hosted at:

• The University of Edinburgh
• University College London
• Cardiff University
• Imperial College London
• King’s College London
• The University of Cambridge
• Care Research and Technology, Imperial College London.

The UK DRI at the University of Edinburgh

The UK DRI at the University of Edinburgh is primarily based in the Chancellor’s Building, which is part of the BioQuarter, Edinburgh's new multidisciplinary research institute and teaching hospital.

The research Centre, led by Professor Giles Hardingham, is aiming to piece together how all the different brain cells, systems and processes work together to keep our brains healthy over many decades. Unravelling how these finely-tuned interactions are disturbed even before a person has any specific signs or symptoms of dementia will open new avenues for the development of therapies.

Our brain is an incredibly complex organ, made up of 100 billion neurons. It is aided by an intricate network of blood vessels that supply nutrients and oxygen, working together in perfect harmony. Understanding the function of each component and the complex relationships between them helps give us a better picture of what happens when things go wrong in conditions such as dementia.

By understanding the inner workings of our brains, our researchers hope to identify disturbances that can lead to neurodegenerative diseases. A main aim of the Edinburgh research programme is to find new targets for the development of treatments - meaning that more people can live longer, healthier lives.

Our team in Edinburgh

Centre director.

• Professor Giles Hardingham

Giles' Research Explorer profile

(Professor Hardingham is supported by Dr Beverly Roberts - see contact details below)

Group Leaders

• Dr Kathryn Bowles

Kathryn's Researcher Explorer profile

• Professor Siddharthan Chandran (also UK DRI Institute Director) - with Co-I Professor Suvankar Pal (see below)

Siddharthan's Research Explorer profile

• Dr Blanca Diaz-Castro

Blanca's Research Explorer profile

• Dr Jian Gan

Jian's Research Explorer profile

• Dr Philip Hasel

Philip's Research Explorer profile

• Professor David Hunt

David's Research Explorer profile

• Dr Barry McColl

Barry's Research Explorer profile

• Dr Veronique (Veronica) Miron

Veronique's Research Explorer profile

• Dr Axel Montagne

Axel's Research Explorer profile

• Dr Patricio (Pato) Opazo

Patricio's Research Explorer profile

• Professor Josef Priller

Josef's Research Explorer profile

• Professor Tara Spires-Jones

Tara's Research Explorer profile

• Professor Joanna Wardlaw - with Co-I Professor Anna Williams (see below)

Joanna's Research Explorer profile

Co-Investigators

• Professor Suvankar Pal (with Siddharthan Chandran)

Suvankar's Research Explorer profile

• Professor Anna Williams (with Professor Joanna Wardlaw)

Anna's Research Explorer profile

Associate Members

• Professor Dario Alessi (University of Dundee)

Dario's profile

• Professor Seth Grant

Seth's Research Explorer profile

• Professor Chris Ponting

Chris' Research Explorer profile

Emerging Leaders

• Dr Claire Durrant (academic sponsor Professor Tara Spires-Jones)

Claire's Research Explorer profile

• Dr Bhuvaneish Selvaraj (academic sponsor Professor Siddharthan Chandran)

Bhuvaneish's Research Explorer profile

• Dr Jing Qiu (academic sponsor Professor Giles Hardingham)

Jing's Research Explorer profile

Core Support Staff

• Dr Owen Dando (Informatics Platform Manager)

[email protected]

• Mrs Lynsey Dunsmore (Colony Manager)

[email protected]

• Dr Xin He (Bioinformatician)

[email protected]

• Ms Alexa Jury (Laboratory Manager)

[email protected] , Tel:   0131 242 9400

• Dr Juraj Koudelka (Microscopy Platform Manager)

[email protected], Tel:   0131 242 9494

• Dr Mosi Li (Postdoctoral Researcher)

[email protected]

• Ms Mehreen Mohammad (Research Assistant/Colony Management)

[email protected]

• Dr David Perry (Database Manager)

[email protected]

• Dr Beverly Roberts (Scientific Administrator/Centre Manger & Executive Assistant to Centre Director)

[email protected]

• Dr Deepali Vasoya (Bioinformatician)

[email protected]

Related links

Edinburgh BioQuarter

Dementia Research Centre

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UK DRI Centre at Imperial

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mission and strategic overview

Our Mission

The UK DRI Centre at Imperial is well aligned with the mission of the UK DRI to pursue innovative, early-stage science advancing an understanding of how dementias develop. We are working to translate our new discoveries into new therapies. Our innovation comes from our highly interdisciplinary team. We make a unique contribution to the UK DRI with remit that integrates large population ‘omics studies with multi-omic neuropathology to discover how genetics, environment and lifestyle together initiate the cellular phases of Alzheimer’s (AD) and Parkinson’s (PD) diseases and how these can be modulated therapeutically.

By planning and executing our science openly and collaboratively with that in other Centres across the UK DRI, we are achieving more and doing so more confidently and quickly.

Read our Research

The UK DRI Centre at Imperial has twelve distinct research programmes working on the South Kensington, White City and Hammersmith campuses.

Learn more about our research

Professor Paul Matthews outlines the role of the Centre at Imperial within the UK DRI. Here he describes the multidisciplinary research activity of our centre, how we are building capacity, supporting early career researchers and how we are developing collaborations nationally and internationally.

Join our team

We are recruiting researchers across multiple disciplines - find out how to apply to join our Institute.

Research programmes

Research at the UK Dementia Research Institute at Imperial is arranged around twelve programmes, benefitting from expert leadership across all of the College's faculties.

Read the recent research highlights from our centre

Scientists Identify Link Between Sitting and Dementia

N ew insights into the medical mysteries behind dementia have been revealed this week, with two studies identifying drivers of the brain-degenerating condition.

One study, released on September 11 in the journal General Psychiatry , shows that the shortening of little caps on the end of chromosomes may be linked to increased dementia risk. Another, published in the journal JAMA on September 12, reveals that spending more time sedentary, such as sitting down, may also increase the risk.

These studies may help scientists to further understand the mechanisms behind what causes dementia to develop, and therefore how to stop it.

How Aging Is Linked to Dementia

Dementia is a term for the symptoms of a decline in brain function, as a result of damage to or changes in the brain. Alzheimer's disease is a form of dementia, caused by an abnormal build-up of two types of protein: amyloid and tau. One of the major drivers of dementia development is age, as it is much more common in the elderly.

This may be somewhat explained by the findings of the General Psychiatry paper, which discovered that dementia risk increases with the shortening of the telomeres. These telomeres are little caps on the ends of chromosomes that prevent the functional genes from being lost during replication. As a person ages, their telomeres become shorter and shorter as a result of many years of cell division and chromosome replication.

According to the paper, data from UK Biobank—a large biomedical database—reveals that of patients between the ages of 37 and 73, those with shorter telomeres in their leucocytes (a type of white blood cell) were 14 percent more likely to be diagnosed with dementia than those with the longest telomeres, and 28 percent more likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

"We found that LTL [leucocyte telomere length] acts as an aging biomarker associated with the risk of dementia," the authors wrote. "Furthermore, we also observed linear associations of LTL with total and regional brain structure. These findings highlight telomere length as a potential biomarker of brain health."

"Since LTL is largely inherited, individuals who inherit shorter LTL may be predisposed to dementia, making LTL an appealing predictive biomarker for dementia. In addition, shorter LTL is widely regarded as an indicator of poorer neuropsychological condition, so measurement of LTL might be considered as an option offered to the public to motivate healthy lifestyle choices in the general population."

How Sedentary Behavior is Linked to Dementia

The JAMA paper reveals that another driver of dementia may be a sedentary lifestyle.

Also using UK Biobank data, as well as accelerometer data from study participants, the researchers found that people aged over 60 who spend more than 10 hours a day engaging in sedentary behaviors, such as sitting, are at a higher risk of dementia compared with those who are sedentary for less time.

"The link between sedentary behavior was nonlinear, so that at lower amounts of sitting time, there was no significant increase in risk," study author David Raichlen, professor of biological sciences and anthropology at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, told Newsweek . "After about 10 hours per day of sedentary behavior, risks increased significantly. Ten hours per day of sedentary behavior was associated with an 8 percent increase in risk of dementia and 12 hours per day was associated with a 63 percent increase in risk of dementia."

Sedentary behavior was defined by the authors as any waking behavior characterized by "a low energy expenditure while in a sitting or reclining posture," Raichlen said.

"We were surprised to find that the risk of dementia begins to rapidly increase after 10 hours spent sedentary each day, regardless of how the sedentary time was accumulated," study author Gene Alexander, professor of psychology and psychiatry at the Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute at the University of Arizona and Arizona Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, said in a statement.

"This suggests that it is the total time spent sedentary that drove the relationship between sedentary behavior and dementia risk, but importantly lower levels of sedentary behavior, up to around 10 hours, were not associated with increased risk."

They also found that even if this sedentary time is broken up by periods of activity, it's only the total time spent sitting that appears to have an impact on dementia risk.

"Many of us are familiar with the common advice to break up long periods of sitting by getting up every 30 minutes or so to stand or walk around," Raichlen said in the statement. "We wanted to see if those types of patterns are associated with dementia risk. We found that once you take into account the total time spent sedentary, the length of individual sedentary periods didn't really matter."

The exact reason why sedentary lifestyles may be linked to dementia risk is unclear, the authors said, with more research being required to fully understand the mechanisms behind this association.

"Our study was not focused on mechanisms but it is possible that reductions in cerebral blood flow or links between sedentary behavior and cardiometabolic disease factors may play a role in increased risk for dementia. Future work will focus on identifying these mechanisms," Raichlen said.

The link between telomere length and dementia also needs more research, the General Psychiatry authors explain, including looking at telomere length in other cell types, and how dementia risk changes with changes in telomere length.

"Several limitations must be taken into account," the authors wrote. "LTL was measured only once at baseline in nearly 470,000 participants. Based on the results of the current study, we were unable to identify whether changes in LTL impact the chances of dementia development.

"Dementia diagnoses were obtained from electronic health records only, so some dementia cases may not have been fully covered; likewise, we inevitably omitted some undiagnosed dementia and less severe dementia cases as they might not have been mentioned in the electronic health records," they said. "Finally, given the nature of an observational study design, conclusions of causality should be made with caution."

Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about dementia? Let us know via [email protected].

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Dr Marianne Coleman - Connecting Globally: Insights from the ADI Conference Dementia Researcher Blogs

• Life Sciences

Dr Marianne Coleman narrates her blog written for the Dementia Researcher website. Explore the latest global insights on Alzheimer's research with Marianne's blog reflecting on the Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI) Conference. Read or listen to learn more about her work, the conference experiences, and gain a deeper understanding of the progress being made in the field and how these developments can impact patients and research communities worldwide. Find the original text, and narration here on our website. https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/blog-connecting-globally-insights-from-the-adi-conference/ #ADI2024 #DementiaResearch #Dementia -- Dr Marianne Coleman is an Orthoptist and Clinical Eyecare Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne & Australian College of Optometry (National Vision Research Institute). Marianne's research focusses on visual function and access to eyecare for people living with dementia. With a background working within the NHS, she notices that she saw lots of older adults, but few with dementia, and this inspired her to try and understand why. @MPOrthoptics -- Enjoy listening? We're always looking for new bloggers, drop us a line. http://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk This podcast is brought to you in association with Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Race Against Dementia, who we thank for their ongoing support. -- Follow us on Social Media: https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/ https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/ https://twitter.com/demrescommunity https://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher

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Association of Rest-Activity Rhythm and Risk of Developing Dementia or Mild Cognitive Impairment in the Middle-Aged and Older Population: Prospective Cohort Study.

Recent broad publications.

About dementia

What is dementia.

Dementia is the name given to a cluster of symptoms caused by various diseases of the brain. The words “dementia” and “Alzheimer’s” are often used interchangeably, even by clinical staff and social workers, without being clear what the people using the words mean. In fact, the term “dementia” may be used to cover several different things. The word in some languages is feared, even more than the word “Alzheimer’s.” People have often seemed to find it easier to talk about Alzheimer’s, although the dementia they are discussing is not Alzheimer’s disease but one of a range of other conditions which we’ll talk about here.

…the term “dementia” may be used to cover several different things…

Dementia symptoms are many and varied even though it is often described as if it is simply a memory problem. People with dementia often have trouble remembering new things, but that’s not the worst issue. Other problems include:

Poor judgement, where the person trusts strangers they’d never have trusted in the past. They might take risks that they’d never have taken before, including going out in freezing weather without dressing for the cold, and they may act impulsively. They become less able than before to manage money and domestic life and find it hard to adapt to anything new.

Becoming lost and disorientated, when the person can’t find their way back home from a familiar journey that they’ve done thousands of times. Even in a neighbourhood that they know well, they may make the mistake of heading home to a place they used to live, rather than their current home. Language can become muddled as the person finds increasing difficulty in finding the word for common objects or expressing themselves.

Difficulty with balance and movement, and eventually even basic actions like swallowing. This can be made worse in older people with dementia, because the person might have the normal changes of older age, like impaired hearing or sight, but the dementia makes them more likely to forget to use their glasses or hearing aid. Or they try to walk without the stick or walking aid that they currently need to use. Sometimes the specific dementia symptoms include visual impairment, where the eyes still seem to work, but the brain doesn’t process what is being seen. The person could walk into traffic on the road as if blind.

Most people with dementia in the past were only noticed at the later stages. Either they had been ignored by the doctors they approached, or they had done everything in their power, sometimes with the support of family, to deny and conceal the changes that were taking place, until it was so obvious that it was impossible to hide. Things are better now. There is more information for the public and encouragement for clinicians to ask questions and make a diagnosis. People see benefits from ruling out other conditions.

Clinicians are more aware of problems like delirium, depression, stress, and mild cognitive impairment, that look a bit like dementia, but which can be reversed. The sooner someone contacts their doctor, the sooner those reversible conditions can be treated. And if it is dementia causing the problems, help and support can be given from the earliest stage and plans made for the future.

It’s useful for everyone to know, if possible, what disease is causing the dementia. This can indicate what interventions are likely to make a difference. If people affected and their families are given an idea of what to expect, it makes life easier. Someone might have a mixed dementia, for example having both Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia, which makes it more complicated.

Alzheimer’s disease has long been considered the most common cause of dementia and about half a million people in the UK are affected by it. Seen through a microscope, abnormal clumps appear in the brain tissue, along with tangled fibres that should not be there. When this causes sections of brain cells to lose contact with each other and the whole brain to shrink, it will affect the person’s behaviour and thinking. The biggest mystery is that many of us have the Alzheimer’s disease process going on in our brains without ever showing any signs of dementia.

Vascular dementia is caused by any of the health conditions that can damage blood supply to the brain. It’s more likely to be seen when someone has had a stroke. The dementia symptoms are caused when small areas in the brain are deprived of oxygen and the brain cells die off. This is sometimes referred to as a ‘mini stroke’. There are lifestyle changes that can reduce the risk of this.

Lewy body dementia is more likely to occur in a person who has Parkinson’s disease . It affects movement, causing tremors and rigidity. Hallucinations and nocturnal disturbance are more common in Lewy body disease than in the other dementias. (See also www.lewybody.org )

Fronto-temporal dementia is the name given to a range of conditions including Pick’s disease. The fronto-temporal part of the brain affected is the area responsible for behaviour, emotions, and language. These changes are very difficult for families because it is embarrassing when behaviour becomes difficult, and other people respond as if the person is nasty or rude, when it is the disease causing the personality and behaviour change.

Many other disorders are linked to dementia including alcohol misuse, Huntington’s disease , brain injury, and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease . The greatest risk for developing dementia is getting old, so as more of us age, the number affected has been increasing. There are some causes of dementia that are so rare, many clinicians will never see them in their lifetime. Young onset dementia may affect people in their 40s, 50s and early 60s. Some rare dementias may have family links.

There is some good news, though. Public health measures and brain health programmes seem to be reducing the dementia risk for the population as a whole. If we start them early enough for children we might aim to live in a world where, even while researchers are still searching for a cure, fewer and fewer people get dementia. These measures include:

Diet and exercise … What is good for the heart is good for the head

Alcohol and smoking reduction … Public health measures in this area are already showing results

Head trauma…. Rules about boxing, football, and rugby, along with health and safety rules in industry where people now wear hard hats can make a huge difference

Improved treatment for vascular disease and metabolic disease…. Now that doctors have treatments for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, atherosclerosis, diabetes, depression, and obesity these known risk factors can be controlled.

There is no magic cure for dementia, or a simple silver bullet, because there are so many causes and the brain is so complex. The current focus is on maintaining brain health, which we can all do, while the researchers seek out more ways of preventing dementia. One day a cure for some of the diseases that cause these symptoms will be found by researchers, but in the meantime we all have to work to keep ourselves as well as possible.

Expert advice from our partners in dementia research

What is dementia.

Watch a series of short videos from the Dementia Services Development Trust on What is dementia?

Dementia expert Professor June Andrews answers key questions:

• What are the earliest symptoms of Dementia?
• What is the difference between Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease?
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Dementia A to Z

For more information, see the series of books written by Professor June Andrews:

• Dementia: The One-Stop Guide
• When Someone You Know Has Dementia: Practical Advice for Families and Caregivers
• Dementia: What You Need to Know: Practical advice on Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease

World-leading experts at University College London have created an online course called The Many Faces of Dementia for anyone interested in dementia, to explain the key issues in dementia care and research.

Dementia diagnosis

Watch a series of short videos from the Dementia Services Development Trust on Getting a diagnosis.

DSDC Wales Research Centre has produced a video of top tips for anyone newly diagnosed with dementia, and a film showing how people living with dementia can provide friendship and support to each other A friendly face

DSDC Wales Research Centre also produces ‘Knowledge is Power’ , a booklet written by people with dementia, offering advice on dealing with a diagnosis.

Living with Dementia

Watch a series of short videos from the Dementia Services Development Trust on Living at home.

The Dementia Services Development Trust has produced a film called ‘We need to talk about Dementia’ , which is designed to show what happens when someone is diagnosed with dementia and has to go to stay in a care home.

Essential reading from Professor June Andrews:

• 5 Ways to keep your mind active
• 3 Ways to Keep a Calm Environment in the House

An online course from University College London, Dementia and the Arts, shows how the arts can improve the lives of people with dementia.

Care Homes for people with Dementia

Watch a series of short videos from the Dementia Services Development Trust on Care Homes

• Care Homes – When, Why and How to choose a Care Home

Financial matters

Watch a series of short videos from the Dementia Services Development Trust on Finance and Power of Attorney.

Essential reading from Sandra McDonald:

• Power of Attorney – One Stop Guide: All you need to know about granting it, using it or relying on it. (Amazon.co.uk)

Contact information

  207 Regent Street, London, W1B 3HH   0845 475 8202   [email protected]

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©️ Dementia Research UK 2024

Dementia Research UK is a company limited by guarantee in England and Wales No. 8236220. Charity No. 1154143. In Scotland Charity No. SC045615.

The charity is also registered in the UK with the Information Commissioner and Fundraising Regulator.

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• Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) research at UK DRI
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​UK DRI at The University of Edinburgh

"The UK DRI at Edinburgh focuses on understanding how all the different cell types in our brains work together to keep the brain healthy, how this goes wrong in dementia, and how this process can be slowed or stopped to alter disease progression." Prof Giles Hardingham UK DRI Centre Director

1. At a glance

Understanding the inner workings of the brain – and how things can go wrong

UK DRI researchers in Edinburgh are aiming to piece together how all the different brain cells, systems and processes work together to keep our brains healthy over many decades. Unravelling how these finely-tuned interactions are disturbed even before a person has any specific signs or symptoms of dementia – and how changes are involved in driving disease progression – will open new avenues for the development of novel therapies.

Our brain is an incredibly complex organ, made up of around 100 billion neurons and an equal number of other cells that provide vital support and protection. It is aided by an intricate network of blood vessels that supply nutrients and oxygen, working together in perfect harmony. It is essential to understand the function of each component, and the complex relationships between them, to understand how our most complicated organ works – and what happens when things go wrong in conditions such as dementia.

By understanding the inner workings of our brains, the researchers hope to identify disturbances that can lead to neurodegenerative diseases. A main aim of the research programmes is to find new targets for the development of treatments - meaning that more people can live longer, healthier lives.

Read more about the official opening of the UK DRI at Edinburgh

Take a virtual laboratory tour of the UK DRI at Edinburgh

2. Scientific Goals

The mission of the UK DRI at Edinburgh is to elucidate the interactions within and between the brain vasculature, neurons, macroglia and microglia which control the trajectory of neurodegenerative disorders leading to dementia and exploit this knowledge for therapeutic benefit.

Synapse and circuit dysfunction leading to dementia are heavily influenced by the multicellular environment of the neurogliovascular unit (NGVU). Genetic, epidemiological and post-mortem studies point to inflammatory, vascular and metabolic (mitochondria, lipid, glucose-RNA- and APP- metabolism) factors in pathogenesis. This indicates central roles for NGVU components in disease progression, given their function in maintaining inflammatory, bioenergetic and metabolic balance in the brain.

All NGVU cell types are altered by neurodegenerative disease and its primary risk factor, age. However, the interplay between NGVU components, and their impact on disease progression, is poorly understood, yet critical for progression to therapies. To understand this, it is also important to probe NGVU interactions underlying homeostasis in the healthy brain, which typically maintains human cognitive function for several decades. Identifying the regulators of adaptive and protective homeostatic processes is likely to reveal a largely untapped resource of therapeutic targets with cross-disease applicability.

Achieving this aim will require a holistic view of the NGVU in disease progression, delineating key cell-(non)autonomous influences of disease-causing factors, requiring interdisciplinary, interlinked projects fuelled by complementary expertise.

The centre will develop four inter-related themes through synergistic programmes, exploring how NGVU interactions maintain homeostasis during health, adapt and change during the prodrome, and drive pathology during disease. Scientists will use diverse approaches from animal and human stem cell models through to human imaging and experimental medicine.

The specific themes are:

1. Macroglia in neuroprotection and neurotoxicity

2. Cerebrovascular & metabolic dysfunction

3. Inflammation and immunomodulation

4. Synapses and neurons as effectors of a dysfunctional NGVU

3. Centre Staff

Research, technical and administrative staff that work across lab groups to drive activities at the Centre:

• Dr Beverly Roberts (Centre Manager)
• Alexa Jury (Laboratory Manager)
• Morag Laidlaw (Head of Research Management)
• Dr Deepali Vasoya (Bioinformatician)
• Dr Owen Dando (Lead Bioinformatician)
• Dr Juraj Koudelka (Research Fellow/Imaging Lead)
• Dr Xin He (Bioinformatician)
• Lynsey Dunsmore (Colony Manager)
• Dr Alison Harris (Research Assistant)

4. Collaborations

Within UK DRI

• Prof Paul Matthews, UK DRI at Imperial
• Dr Nir Grossman, UK DRI at Imperial
• Prof John Hardy, UK DRI at UCL
• Prof Adrian Isaacs, UK DRI at UCL
• Prof Sarah Tabrizi, UK DRI at UCL

UK DRI Co-investigator

• Prof Anna Williams , University of Edinburgh

Beyond UK DRI

• MRC Centre for Inflammation Research , Centre for Cardiovascular Sciences and BHF Centre of Research Excellence.
• The Dundee-Edinburgh Parkinson’s Research Initiative which spans both clinical and discovery research with the aim of improving links between these disciplines.

Vasculature, inflammation, macroglia, neurons, microglia, synapse

6. Techniques

Mass cytometry, RNA-seq, proteomics, chimeric transplants, Chemogenetics (DREADDs), TRAP-seq, RNA-seq, RNAscope, Forward-Phase Antibody Microarrays, multiplex custom ELISA plates, mass spectrometry, proteomics, primary microglia cell culture (rodent and porcine), multi-species in vitro multi-cell platforms, human iPSC cell culture, MRI, flow cytometry, in vivo multiphoton imaging, MRI, electron microscopy

7. Scientific Advisory Board

• Professor Richard Morris (Chair), University of Edinburgh
• Professor Dwight Bergles , John Hopkins University
• Professor Beth Stevens , Harvard University
• Professor Maiken Nedergaard , University of Copenhagen

8. Vacancies

The UK DRI at Edinburgh is currently looking to recruit excellent researchers to take up UK DRI Group Leaders positions at career-track level. Find out more in the Centre's career brochure below.

Visit our Join Us page to see opportunities available at this centre.

9. Meet the team

Axel Montagne

• UK DRI Group Leader

Cerebrovascular and inflamm-ageing link to neurodegeneration and dementia

Barry McColl

Microglial mechanisms influencing susceptibility and resilience to dementia-causing disease.

Beverly Roberts

• Centre Manager and Executive Assistant to Centre Director, UK DRI at Edinburgh
• Edinburgh, Central team

Bhuvaneish Selvaraj

• UK DRI Emerging Leader

Mechanisms of selective vulnerability of motor neurons in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

• Edinburgh, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) research at UK DRI

Blanca Díaz-Castro

Architecture, function and dysfunction of astrocyte-vasculature interactions.

Claire Durrant

The role of tau in synapse survival and its relevance to alzheimer’s disease.

How does aberrant innate immune activation damage the microvasculature of the brain?

Giles Hardingham

• UK DRI Centre Director

Astrocytes as an upstream modulator and downstream effector of neurodegenerative pathology

Real-time interrogation of neural circuit dynamics underpinning cognition and its collapse in dementia

Identifying novel strategies to restore the microglial homeostatic phenotype and modulate neuroinflammation in dementia

Joanna Wardlaw

Small vessel disease and vascular contributions to neurodegeneration and dementia.

Josef Priller

Myeloid cells in neurodegenerative diseases.

Kathryn Bowles

Genetic mechanisms underlying tauopathies.

Patricio Opazo

Synaptic repair mechanisms for the diseased brain.

Philip Hasel

Understanding the role of astrocyte subtypes in brain (dys)function.

Siddharthan Chandran

• UK DRI Director

Dissecting macroglial-neuronal crosstalk in C9ORF72 FTD/ALS

• Edinburgh, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) research at UK DRI, UCL, Central team

Tara Spires-Jones

Non-cell autonomous mechanisms of synapse pathology.

Veronique Miron

How do microglia regulate myelin integrity and cognitive function in health and ageing.