Member Article

UCL secures £10 million to develop new dementia treatments

Alzheimer’s Research UK has announced a £30 million Drug Discovery Alliance, launching three flagship Drug Discovery Institutes at UCL, the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford.

The Drug Discovery Institutes will see 90 new research scientists employed in state-of-the-art facilities to fast-track the development of new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.

Dementia affects over 830,000 people in the UK and costs the UK economy £23bn a year.

It has been 12 years since the last treatment for dementia was licensed in the UK and while current treatments help with symptoms, they are only modestly effective and not suitable for all dementias.

At the G8 Dementia Summit one year ago, health leaders from across the world pledged a research ambition for a disease-modifying therapy for dementia by 2025.

Alzheimer’s Research UK’s Drug Discovery Alliance will make a major contribution to delivering this ambition – a network of Drug Discovery Institutes dedicated to early stage drug discovery.

The UCL Drug Discovery Institute, embedded within UCL’s multi-Faculty campus in the heart of London, will unite world-class dementia researchers with drug discovery experts.

Prof Giampietro Schiavo, co-Lead Academic Scientist at the UCL Drug Discovery Institute, said: “Although our understanding of dementia has increased considerably in the past decade, this has yet to yield commensurate benefits for patients. By bridging the vital gap between basic research and treatments for patients, the Drug Discovery Institutes should help us to change this.

“Harnessing the considerable expertise in dementia and drug discovery across UCL and throughout the partnership, we hope to identify promising drugs that could make a real difference to patients’ lives.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .