Dementia Research Centre

The UCL Dementia Research Centre is a hub for patient-centred research into dementias. As well as clinical studies and trials in Alzheimer’s disease and other common causes of dementia, we have particular expertise in young-onset, inherited and unusual dementias. Our work focuses on identifying and understanding the disease processes that cause dementia, the factors that influence these disease processes, ways to improve diagnosis and treatments, and how best to support people with dementia and their families. Our research is closely integrated with the NHS Cognitive Disorders Service we run at The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery.

Highlights this month...

Prof Jonathan Schott and Dr Ashvini Keshavan

Research teams at UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology and Dementias Platform UK, based at the University of Oxford, have been awarded the Blood Biomarker Challenge, which is a multi-million-pound award given by Alzheimer’s Society, Alzheimer’s Research UK, the National Institute for Health and Research and Gates Ventures, including £5m raised by players of the People’s Postcode Lottery.

The project aims to revolutionise dementia diagnosis by capitalising on recent breakthroughs in potential dementia blood tests to generate the evidence needed for them to be used in the NHS within the next 5 years.

The UCL team will be led by Professor Jonathan Schott (UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, honorary consultant neurologist at UCLH, and Chief Medical Officer at Alzheimer’s Research UK) and Dr Ashvini Keshavan (UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology), the Alzheimer's Disease Diagnosis and Plasma p-tau217 (ADAPT) team will focus on the most promising biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease, called p-tau217.

More information about the project can be found on UCL's here.