Dementia Research
Research into dementia at Newcastle is led by Professor Andrew Blamire and Dr John-Paul Taylor. Find out about their ongoing research projects.
Professor Andrew Blamire
Understanding the processes affecting the ageing brain is central to unlocking the secrets of dementia. A major project is developing a multi-parameter approach to defining brain tissue structure, organisation and several aspects of function.
To allow effective and acceptable study of people with early dementia we have developed very rapid scanning techniques. These allow measurement of the six major parameters in the same patient.
Understanding the relationship between these measurements will shed new light on disease progression of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.
Dr John-Paul Taylor
The Brain Ageing and Dementia research group within the Institute of Neuroscience is one of the leading international centres for research into dementias, especially non-Alzheimer dementias such as:
- vascular dementia
- dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB)
- Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD)
It hosts the NIHR Biomedical Research Unit specialising in clinical research into Lewy body dementia.
Newcastle, jointly with the Institute of Neurology in London, will be the co-ordinating Centre for the Department of Health funded Neurodegenerative Disease and Dementia Clinical Research Networks. In the North East of England research across the basic to clinical interface has the major advantage of unparalleled access to such patient groups.
Using our 3T magnet we have described cross-sectional and longitudinal structural and spectroscopic changes associated with vascular dementia, DLB and PDD. We have defined key imaging changes characteristic of DLB and PDD, and shown clear separation from AD. We have also identified subcortical vascular disease and frontal grey matter changes as major correlates of cognitive impairment after stroke.
Current studies include functional, spectroscopic and diffusion studies investigating the neural basis of symptom formation (especially fluctuating consciousness and visual hallucinations) in DLB and PDD and investigation of the contribution of Alzheimer and vascular pathology to the development of cognitive impairment after stroke.
Serial studies are assessing subjects from both 'at risk' groups and those at the earliest stages of illness to define predictors of subsequent development of dementia and to assess imaging changes as surrogate outcome measures for clinical trials.
Development of MR biomarkers in dementia is a central theme of our work. We are exploring the inter-relationships between MR structural and functional changes in dementia and other biomarker modalities eg amyloid and metabolic PET imaging, cerebrospinal fluid tau/amyloid etc.
We are also part of national imaging collaborations, including the MRC/NIHR funded Deep and Frequent phenotyping study, and clinical trials for vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Newcastle is one of the academic partners in the MRC funded Dementia Platforrms UK.