Ageing Brains

A normal healthy brain (pictured is a map showing connections in an older brain) is something most of us take for granted. However, more people over the age of 65 are disabled by dementia than any other illness. There is no cure and research funding is limited. At today’s G8 Dementia summit, many issues will be discussed with the government’s dementia challenge in mind, which last year promised to drive improvements in the care and research of the disorder. As part of this, the Medical Research Council is launching the UK Dementias Platform (UKDP). Bringing pharmaceutical companies together with startups and academia a large-scale genotyping and imaging collaboration will be fostered. Researchers hope that by studying the whole body, rather than just the brain, new insights into disease progression will arise.

Written by Brona McVittie

Brona McVittie

Writer/Consultant

Independent science blogger and musician. Got the whole BPoD show on the road while heading up the public engagement team at the MRC CSC. Loves gardening, cooking and diving. Makes corkbots too.

• Image by Mark Bastin and Dave Liewald
• The Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology
• Copyright held by original authors