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Affecting millions of people worldwide, neurodegenerative diseases pose a major and increasing global health challenge. Join us to hear Dr Malpetti and Dr Swann discuss how interdisciplinary research is vital in understanding these neurodegenerative diseases, with tools drawn from genetics to immunology!
Imaging of Neurodegeneration
Dr Maura Malpetti
(Race Against Dementia Alzheimer’s Research UK Research Fellow, University of Cambridge)
What happens inside the brain when someone has dementia? Now, we can visualise and measure brain changes in people living with dementia. As dementia researchers, we use specialist brain scans that allow us to characterise brain inflammation, 'toxic' junk proteins and brain cell communication and how these can lead to dementia. Additionally, we are exploring how insights from brain scans may be translated into simple blood tests. Altogether, these tools have been and continue to be instrumental in the fight against dementia and for the discovery of new treatments.
Neuroinflammation meets Dementia - how, where, when?
Dr Peter Swann
(Trainee Psychiatrist and Clinical Research Associate, Cambridge Centre for Parkinson-Plus)
Neuroinflammation (inflammation in the brain) has long been associated with depression, psychosis, and now also dementia, as immune cells work to clean up 'toxic' proteins that build up in the brains of people affected by the condition. There is increasing evidence that the immune system may play an important role in the progression of dementia. Find out about how recent studies are finding evidence of inflammation in the brain and the immune system in the early stages of dementia.
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