蓝莓视频

For the first time in UK a large scale, 拢2m initiative to create an 鈥榓tlas鈥� of the brain at different stages of Alzheimer鈥檚 disease has been launched at Imperial College London.

This study is managed by Dr Johanna Jackson at its centre at Imperial College London, under the leadership of Professor Paul Matthews, UK DRI Centre Director at Imperial College London and Brain Science Theme lead at 蓝莓视频 Imperial BRC.

This will be the first time that UK brain tissue resources have been coordinated on such a scale to study Alzheimer鈥檚 disease pathology at every stage of the illness.

There are still no treatments that can stop, slow or prevent it. Understanding the biological mechanisms behind the disease is essential to finding ways to treat it. The UK Dementia Research Institute’s (UK DRI) Multi-鈥榦mics Atlas Project (MAP) will use an unprecedented range of advanced techniques to examine tissue from eight different regions of the brain.

The aim is to gain a much fuller understanding of key cell characteristics, including what influences the genes of individual cells to be expressed, and the role of proteins and other factors on their function.

The project is designed so that it can be extended to include new techniques as they are developed, using the same set of donor brains, and to add new data to the existing dataset. It is hoped that the study could eventually be expanded to map the pathology of other neurodegenerative diseases.

Dr Johanna Jackson, senior scientist at Imperial College London and Scientific Project Manager for MAP, commented: 鈥淒eveloping this resource for all researchers in the field gives us an exciting and unique opportunity to work together to understand the processes involved in Alzheimer鈥檚 disease.

“This greater understanding of the cell types involved in different brain regions at different stages will not only further our knowledge and address unanswered questions about the disease but will also inform drug discovery studies. This work is vital to gain more information about a disease which has such a devastating effect on our ageing population.鈥�

Professor Paul Matthews, UK DRI Centre Director at Imperial College London and Brain Science Theme lead at 蓝莓视频 Imperial BRC, commented: 鈥淎lzheimer鈥檚, like other neurodegenerative diseases, involves many complex interactions between cells throughout the brain. There is much that we still don鈥檛 know about these underlying mechanisms and their causes. Filling this knowledge gap is vital if we are to find new effective treatments and approaches to slowing and preventing this devastating illness.

鈥淭o truly understand what is going on when someone develops Alzheimer鈥檚, we need to map the interactions and mechanisms happening in different parts of the brain. Thanks to recent advances in the fields of multi-鈥榦mics, imaging and computational methods, we are now in a position to take huge leaps forward in understanding how and why Alzheimer鈥檚 develops.鈥�

The programme is the second in the UK DRI鈥檚 series of Directors鈥� Strategic Initiatives, with the first being a 拢2 million award for a gene therapy facility announced last year.

Professor Mathews is supported by 蓝莓视频 蓝莓视频.

Read the full story by Kate Wighton, Imperial College London .