1 00:00:00,510 --> 00:00:05,370 I think we got to get started for the next session, I hope you're all fully caffeinated now. 2 00:00:05,370 --> 00:00:17,340 A few stragglers. And so the next talk is going to be given by Elmer O'Brien, who works in science communications for Alzheimer's Research UK. 3 00:00:17,340 --> 00:00:27,100 I think promoting awareness of dementia in the public through the media and also is in charge of funding opportunities for clinicians and scientists. 4 00:00:27,100 --> 00:00:32,100 So she could be your next best friend. So I'll let her get started. 5 00:00:32,100 --> 00:00:36,870 Thank you. Okay. Well, thank you very much for having me here today. 6 00:00:36,870 --> 00:00:40,740 I suppose in a room full of doctors and trainee doctors, as we point out, 7 00:00:40,740 --> 00:00:49,950 that my doctor is a Ph.D. so apologies if I make mistakes with the different training programmes and all the other medical lingo, 8 00:00:49,950 --> 00:00:56,610 which I'm not fully up to speed. But really, I'm here today to we've heard a lot about the clinical side of things. 9 00:00:56,610 --> 00:01:02,370 We've heard, you know, the the toll that dementia takes on families who marry. 10 00:01:02,370 --> 00:01:03,480 And we've heard about the policy. 11 00:01:03,480 --> 00:01:12,390 And I'm here really to try and encourage as many of you as possible to think about doing a bit of academic research to complement your clinical work 12 00:01:12,390 --> 00:01:23,340 and to hopefully give you a bit of a flavour of what clinicians can add to the dementia research efforts that are going on in the UK and globally. 13 00:01:23,340 --> 00:01:26,700 So it won't be any surprise. We've heard this throughout today, 14 00:01:26,700 --> 00:01:36,930 that dementia is a global issue and the current estimates are one hundred 850000 people in the UK are living with dementia. 15 00:01:36,930 --> 00:01:41,820 And that means that there's a huge number of family carers, as we've heard from Marian. 16 00:01:41,820 --> 00:01:48,750 And the impact on both the individual and the family is huge. 17 00:01:48,750 --> 00:01:54,150 Aside from the personal side of things, the impact on the UK economy is also massive. 18 00:01:54,150 --> 00:01:58,560 So 24 billion pounds a year is what the dementia costs. 19 00:01:58,560 --> 00:02:05,520 The UK economy that's more than than cancer and heart disease combined and relevance to you. 20 00:02:05,520 --> 00:02:14,310 One in four hospital beds is is occupied by someone with dementia and two and three people in care homes have dementia. 21 00:02:14,310 --> 00:02:24,450 So this is this is really a massive issue. But dementia research has been drastically under-resourced. 22 00:02:24,450 --> 00:02:27,510 So, like I said, the cost to the economy is huge. 23 00:02:27,510 --> 00:02:37,740 But really funding from the government into schemes that have actively try to help find treatments for dementia have lagged far behind. 24 00:02:37,740 --> 00:02:42,690 So it was a bit of a post caffeine interactive session. Does anyone want to guess how much? 25 00:02:42,690 --> 00:02:58,720 Last year the UK government spent on dementia research, 509 million, 75 million, 55 million or 15 million before age 55 is actually correct. 26 00:02:58,720 --> 00:03:08,160 You're not the right person to answer that. So the 509 million is how much was spent on cancer research? 27 00:03:08,160 --> 00:03:14,760 75 million is how much the Department of Work and Pensions spent on stationery a couple of years ago. 28 00:03:14,760 --> 00:03:23,220 In one year, 55 million is dementia research and 15 million is how much Gareth Bale makes in a year playing for Victoria to think so. 29 00:03:23,220 --> 00:03:27,030 Although we're going to hear from from from later about what the government has 30 00:03:27,030 --> 00:03:31,110 stepped up its dementia research funding through the Medical Research Council, 31 00:03:31,110 --> 00:03:37,890 two huge initiatives. We still have a long way to go to make sure that the amount of assisted in dementia research 32 00:03:37,890 --> 00:03:44,490 is is what's needed and also get as many researchers looking at dementia as possible. 33 00:03:44,490 --> 00:03:49,770 So at the moment, there are six times as many researchers looking into cancer as there are in dementia. 34 00:03:49,770 --> 00:03:55,410 So we need to increase the opportunities there are for scientists made dementia research a more attractive 35 00:03:55,410 --> 00:04:03,480 career prospect by providing funding opportunities and and positions within within academic research. 36 00:04:03,480 --> 00:04:10,260 So what do I mean by saying dementia research? And what I'm going to be focussing on is biomedical research. 37 00:04:10,260 --> 00:04:12,060 That's what Alzheimer's research does. 38 00:04:12,060 --> 00:04:21,360 We UK does we fund biomedical research to find ways to diagnose and ultimately treat, treat the diseases that cause dementia. 39 00:04:21,360 --> 00:04:31,320 And the reason we need this investment is because the the drugs that you'll be familiar with did EPSO River, Stigman, etc, are symptomatic treatments. 40 00:04:31,320 --> 00:04:41,220 So as we as we just heard from from from, from cows, they can shop and think the thinking difficulties arise in dementia, 41 00:04:41,220 --> 00:04:49,530 do do a bit for memory, but they're doing nothing to stop the damage that the diseases that cause dementia are wreaking havoc in the brain. 42 00:04:49,530 --> 00:04:54,210 So that's what we're funding research. It can actually modify the disease process. 43 00:04:54,210 --> 00:05:01,110 Holtze, nerve cell death, protect nerve cells so that we can alter the course of the disease. 44 00:05:01,110 --> 00:05:10,650 Rather than just tackling some aspects of symptoms, why has dementia research lagged behind? 45 00:05:10,650 --> 00:05:15,780 Well, there's a huge amount of stigma surrounding dementia for, you know, for decades, 46 00:05:15,780 --> 00:05:21,990 someone who was displaying symptoms of dementia would have been sectioned, institutionalised. 47 00:05:21,990 --> 00:05:28,530 It was not something that the people talked about. It was there was a huge amount of a lack of understanding. 48 00:05:28,530 --> 00:05:33,300 It was accepted that this was just something that happened when people got older. 49 00:05:33,300 --> 00:05:37,830 And that's not true. Dementia is caused by diseases. 50 00:05:37,830 --> 00:05:46,350 This is not a natural part of ageing. And another huge point is that the brain is incredibly complicated. 51 00:05:46,350 --> 00:05:54,810 We're still really trying to understand how the brain works in in those of us that are healthy, let alone what goes wrong in diseases. 52 00:05:54,810 --> 00:06:03,810 So that's why neuroscience as a whole has traditionally lagged behind other other areas of medical research just due to the complexities involved. 53 00:06:03,810 --> 00:06:08,580 And we want to change that through through more research funding. 54 00:06:08,580 --> 00:06:15,120 So a bit of back to basics for those of you that don't don't remember this from from undergraduate's. 55 00:06:15,120 --> 00:06:24,210 So Alzheimer's has two Hallmark proteins, amyloid plaques and tangles. 56 00:06:24,210 --> 00:06:29,880 And really this slide is to illustrate that we have unhealthy nerve cells. 57 00:06:29,880 --> 00:06:36,060 But working out how to fix them is incredibly complicated. Do we try and destroy the plaques? 58 00:06:36,060 --> 00:06:40,110 Do we try and destroy the tangles? Do we need to destroy both? 59 00:06:40,110 --> 00:06:46,050 Can we destroy both? Do we have these things have anything to do with nerve cells getting getting damaged? 60 00:06:46,050 --> 00:06:54,390 And these are the fundamental questions that researchers are trying to answer when it comes to protecting nerve cells from damage. 61 00:06:54,390 --> 00:07:04,680 But Alzheimer's isn't the full story. Although Alzheimer's is responsible for about two thirds of the cases of dementia that we see in this country. 62 00:07:04,680 --> 00:07:11,970 There's also vascular dementia, which we heard about from Marijan Dementia of Lewy body, which has a lot of parallels with Parkinson's. 63 00:07:11,970 --> 00:07:18,870 They've got the same hallmark biological features manifesting in different symptoms and frontotemporal dementia, 64 00:07:18,870 --> 00:07:27,840 which is really, you know, very often misdiagnosed because the initial symptoms are behavioural changes, 65 00:07:27,840 --> 00:07:29,790 personality changes, 66 00:07:29,790 --> 00:07:38,910 which are often not recognised as dementia when when clinicians are looking out for the more usual symptoms of memory and thinking difficulties. 67 00:07:38,910 --> 00:07:45,540 So the problem is incredibly complex, and that's why we need as many people working on this issue as possible. 68 00:07:45,540 --> 00:07:46,770 And that includes clinicians, 69 00:07:46,770 --> 00:07:55,800 because you can provide that clinical viewpoint that scientists working in a laboratory with a pet and some solutions cannot achieve. 70 00:07:55,800 --> 00:08:05,600 Just by doing that, we need clinicians to be able to share their experiences and to conduct research either 71 00:08:05,600 --> 00:08:12,870 in their day to day practise or taking some time out to to to undergo bodies of work. 72 00:08:12,870 --> 00:08:20,610 So now I'm just going to say a few of the opportunities that are available from Alzheimer's Research UK. 73 00:08:20,610 --> 00:08:27,750 So Alzheimer's Research UK funds more biomedical dementia research in the in the UK than any other charity. 74 00:08:27,750 --> 00:08:36,330 And as I said, we focus on research that takes us closer to ways to better diagnose, prevent and ultimately treat the diseases that cause dementia. 75 00:08:36,330 --> 00:08:41,430 And from the pie chart, you'll see on the other the other on the other side, 76 00:08:41,430 --> 00:08:47,610 the diagnosis issues is a huge one because there are so many different causes of dementia, 77 00:08:47,610 --> 00:08:51,380 each with different symptoms, each with different ways of managing these. 78 00:08:51,380 --> 00:09:01,950 And we really need to better understand these diseases if we're to make more accurate, accurate diagnoses are more timely diagnoses. 79 00:09:01,950 --> 00:09:11,070 So we've got to clinician focussed grant schemes, one of which is the Preparatory Clinical Research Fellowship, 80 00:09:11,070 --> 00:09:18,900 and it's designed for clinicians who are thinking about branching out into academic research. 81 00:09:18,900 --> 00:09:29,640 So it's one year of funding suitable for trainees, old age psychiatrist, neurologists and clinical psychologists. 82 00:09:29,640 --> 00:09:40,470 And the proposals would be written by yourself, although you would have to have the support of a supervisor in an academic institution. 83 00:09:40,470 --> 00:09:48,510 You don't need to have a PhD to do these. These really are to get you on that rung of academic research. 84 00:09:48,510 --> 00:09:54,120 As you can imagine, the more successful applicants will have had a bit of research experience, 85 00:09:54,120 --> 00:09:59,930 either through an integrated degree or doing a project at some point in. 86 00:09:59,930 --> 00:10:08,360 In their training, but that's really because it's you yourselves have to write the proposal and really these 87 00:10:08,360 --> 00:10:13,400 these year long schemes are designed to make sure that you can get the the expertise, 88 00:10:13,400 --> 00:10:20,470 the skills, the sort of scientific background that would then allow you to apply for bigger, 89 00:10:20,470 --> 00:10:29,930 bigger grand schemes and sort of become more and to more into the academic research about the schemes themselves. 90 00:10:29,930 --> 00:10:35,780 Are deadlines for them? Are they're done with medic's in mind. 91 00:10:35,780 --> 00:10:38,270 So they're slightly off kilter from our other grand schemes. 92 00:10:38,270 --> 00:10:43,700 Just say that the application deadlines are fitting in when you will have to be changing jobs and things like that. 93 00:10:43,700 --> 00:10:53,550 So they're designed with with with conditions in mind to hopefully make the processes as smooth as possible. 94 00:10:53,550 --> 00:11:00,900 So to give you a few examples of what to our preparator clinical research fellows do, 95 00:11:00,900 --> 00:11:08,340 we have to at the moment just coming to the end of their years, both in London, actually, Cursi, who's at UCL, 96 00:11:08,340 --> 00:11:18,870 and she's working with people with familial Alzheimer's disease as part of a huge it's a global study she's working part of to look 97 00:11:18,870 --> 00:11:27,030 at connectivity in the brain and what are the earliest changes that we can detect in people with familial Alzheimer's disease, 98 00:11:27,030 --> 00:11:30,360 with the hope that that will be able to be able to extrapolate that out, 99 00:11:30,360 --> 00:11:36,990 to look at what are the initial changes that we need to be looking for in people who have later onset Alzheimer's. 100 00:11:36,990 --> 00:11:44,760 And then Valaria at Imperial is also doing an imaging project where she's looking at pet scanning rather than MRI to 101 00:11:44,760 --> 00:11:51,510 look at the role of inflammation and what part that plays in the progression of Alzheimer's disease and inflammation. 102 00:11:51,510 --> 00:11:56,430 That's a really massive topic at the moment in Alzheimer's has been for quite a few 103 00:11:56,430 --> 00:12:01,710 years now because it was traditionally thought of just your body's response to damage. 104 00:12:01,710 --> 00:12:09,690 But now researchers know a lot more about it and have found that it's intimately connected to the progression of the disease. 105 00:12:09,690 --> 00:12:15,510 So she's developing ways that we can monitor inflammation, look at its changes over the disease course, 106 00:12:15,510 --> 00:12:27,740 look at the changes in inflammation in response to therapy. So then the other TaylorMade scheme for clinicians is clinical research fellowship, 107 00:12:27,740 --> 00:12:32,300 pretty much the same thing as the Proprietary Clinical Research Fellowship, but it's three years of funding. 108 00:12:32,300 --> 00:12:35,960 Again, you don't need to have a PhD to apply for this. 109 00:12:35,960 --> 00:12:43,220 And quite a lot of the time, people, clinicians apply for this and do you at their PhD through this scheme. 110 00:12:43,220 --> 00:12:48,440 So this would provide funding. And again, 111 00:12:48,440 --> 00:12:59,540 the applications would have to be made by yourself in in conjunction with a with a supervisor who is a clinician at a at a at a host university. 112 00:12:59,540 --> 00:13:03,380 And I've got a few of our booklets on our funding opportunity. 113 00:13:03,380 --> 00:13:11,810 So d take one of them and then one of my cards and then you can ring our research team at any time to talk through any project ideas that you have. 114 00:13:11,810 --> 00:13:16,190 Obviously it's not actually the research team in the office that makes the decision. 115 00:13:16,190 --> 00:13:23,270 All of our grants go to Grant Review Board, which is made up of about 15 researchers that scrutinise all of the applications. 116 00:13:23,270 --> 00:13:28,280 And then for these research fellowships, you'd go for interview. But the research team can talk you through. 117 00:13:28,280 --> 00:13:34,070 You know, is that within our remit? Is this the sort of thing that we'd fund and that sort of thing to do? 118 00:13:34,070 --> 00:13:40,470 Don't hesitate to give us a call before starting an application. 119 00:13:40,470 --> 00:13:44,850 So just to give you a few examples of our clinical research fellows and more about why 120 00:13:44,850 --> 00:13:52,320 they decided to to get involved in academic research and so on Alzheimer's Research UK, 121 00:13:52,320 --> 00:13:55,770 we have a blog. It's a public facing blog. And we do this. 122 00:13:55,770 --> 00:14:01,560 And every month we have a science is focussed where we do a little interview with somebody that we fund, 123 00:14:01,560 --> 00:14:08,820 whether it be a clinician or a basic researcher. But actually, I find them quite useful as just examples of career pathways, 124 00:14:08,820 --> 00:14:13,590 because especially in science and I imagine it's the same for the clinicians, 125 00:14:13,590 --> 00:14:18,840 you probably get told you have to do things in certain ways and you have to transition from this to this to the other. 126 00:14:18,840 --> 00:14:22,350 And it's always interesting to read examples of people that perhaps haven't done it 127 00:14:22,350 --> 00:14:28,130 in quite so linear a way just to get ideas about what career paths you could have. 128 00:14:28,130 --> 00:14:35,790 So this is Dr. Jianmin, who works down in South Hampton. And when we asked him, you know, why did you want to get involved in research? 129 00:14:35,790 --> 00:14:43,170 He said that when I'm in the clinic with people with dementia and their families, there isn't a lot we can offer them in terms of medication. 130 00:14:43,170 --> 00:14:49,410 There's plenty we can do to support them. But there are limited treatments and those that do exist don't work for everyone. 131 00:14:49,410 --> 00:14:53,880 I often feel that my hands are tied and I wanted to do something to help try and 132 00:14:53,880 --> 00:14:59,100 develop a greater understanding of these diseases to help find new treatments. 133 00:14:59,100 --> 00:15:05,160 So Jay is now embarked on a three year clinical research fellowship to understand more about dementia of liberties. 134 00:15:05,160 --> 00:15:08,370 And he's actually really interested in the inflammatory side of things. 135 00:15:08,370 --> 00:15:15,300 And can we detect in blood clues that would suggest that someone has dementia of liberties rather than, say, 136 00:15:15,300 --> 00:15:23,580 Alzheimer's or frontotemporal dementia to help improve diagnosis and also help understand more about the disease? 137 00:15:23,580 --> 00:15:26,820 Then we have Pablo Garcia write back. 138 00:15:26,820 --> 00:15:35,430 He works at King's, I believe, and he's working again on the information side of things to try to find some examples. 139 00:15:35,430 --> 00:15:38,670 But it's a really a really hot topic at the moment. 140 00:15:38,670 --> 00:15:46,640 He's looking at more of a genetic side of things so very much based in in the lab rather than doing stuff with patients. 141 00:15:46,640 --> 00:15:51,600 And, you know, his advice was, in a way, you're doing two jobs at the same time. 142 00:15:51,600 --> 00:15:55,350 But I find that research and clinical practise complement each other nicely. 143 00:15:55,350 --> 00:16:01,110 As a clinician, I know that what matters to patients, which helps you focus when doing research. 144 00:16:01,110 --> 00:16:08,490 I find it very inspiring and humbling as a researcher to meet the patients that are affected by the disorders that we would investigate. 145 00:16:08,490 --> 00:16:14,760 A lot of scientists do not get this insight, and it really motivates you to go back into the lab to do research. 146 00:16:14,760 --> 00:16:23,280 It's a pleasure to be exposed to different worlds. So doing academic research can be a hugely rewarding experience. 147 00:16:23,280 --> 00:16:28,470 And I completely understand medicks are very busy, overworked, 148 00:16:28,470 --> 00:16:35,160 but it's definitely worth thinking about whether this is something that you would like to explore and bear in mind that there are opportunities, 149 00:16:35,160 --> 00:16:42,450 there are funding initiatives that will allow you to to make that transition and to to do this alongside of clinical work. 150 00:16:42,450 --> 00:16:51,300 And all of our grant schemes obviously take into account the fact that you you know, you're still having to to work in a clinical setting as well. 151 00:16:51,300 --> 00:16:56,580 So a little further down the line, just to give you an idea that this doesn't have to stop at research fellowships, 152 00:16:56,580 --> 00:17:00,330 clinicians are the principal investigators on some of our biggest grants because 153 00:17:00,330 --> 00:17:05,310 they can provide that clinical insight that perhaps a basic scientist can't. 154 00:17:05,310 --> 00:17:11,910 So INSIGHT 46 is is in a way quite similar to the Whitehall study that we heard about from from past. 155 00:17:11,910 --> 00:17:13,680 But this started at birth. 156 00:17:13,680 --> 00:17:21,690 And this took a group of people that were all born in one week in March in 1946, and they've been followed their entire lives. 157 00:17:21,690 --> 00:17:29,670 And now we're funding some researchers at UCLA to do an imaging study on a subset of these people to understand 158 00:17:29,670 --> 00:17:40,170 the changes that are going on in the brain and help us understand how lifestyle impacts on the brain. 159 00:17:40,170 --> 00:17:47,160 We've also got people working on the possibility of a blood test for Alzheimer's, so Simon Loston, 160 00:17:47,160 --> 00:17:53,610 who works here in Oxford, actually now he's a clinician and you may have heard the stories in the news last summer. 161 00:17:53,610 --> 00:17:57,480 It was now about a blood test for Alzheimer's, wasn't quite that. 162 00:17:57,480 --> 00:18:06,060 It was more blood tests to be able to predict whether someone with mild cognitive impairment was likely to go on to get Alzheimer's, 163 00:18:06,060 --> 00:18:09,990 which has huge implications for recruitment to clinical trials. 164 00:18:09,990 --> 00:18:14,130 But the hope is that by that, by investing in that groundwork, 165 00:18:14,130 --> 00:18:20,340 hopefully this will be worked up into a test that can be used more widely in a clinical setting. 166 00:18:20,340 --> 00:18:25,500 But what about basic biology? I know a lot of medicks at least the ones I live with were a bit terrified. 167 00:18:25,500 --> 00:18:28,800 I was a biochemist. The thought of going into a lab and doing stuff. 168 00:18:28,800 --> 00:18:34,770 But there are opportunities for medicks to get involved in the basic biology, not just the the clinical setting. 169 00:18:34,770 --> 00:18:40,770 So here in Oxford, actually, we have a tradition is working on a drug discovery project for dementedly bodies. 170 00:18:40,770 --> 00:18:44,700 So he's doing basic biochemistry, cell biology in a dish. 171 00:18:44,700 --> 00:18:48,330 So you don't just have to use your expertise with patients. 172 00:18:48,330 --> 00:18:56,550 You can also use the fact that you're incredibly bright people to do lab work on the bench setting as well. 173 00:18:56,550 --> 00:19:02,130 So just as an example of some of the big initiatives that we're funding that are more 174 00:19:02,130 --> 00:19:08,580 at that that that basic biology or translational level rather than than in people, 175 00:19:08,580 --> 00:19:13,350 we're funding a stem cell research centre at the University of Cambridge. 176 00:19:13,350 --> 00:19:15,960 And this is really fascinating biology. 177 00:19:15,960 --> 00:19:20,970 And it's it's really interesting how, you know, when I was doing my undergraduate, these techniques didn't exist. 178 00:19:20,970 --> 00:19:24,270 And now they're being used by researchers all around the world. 179 00:19:24,270 --> 00:19:32,430 And this was Nobel prise winning stuff, the discovery that you could take patients skin cells and turn them into stem cells. 180 00:19:32,430 --> 00:19:42,480 And now researchers are using these to basically stimulate the the patient's stem cells to become nerve cells in a dish so we can look at in a dish, 181 00:19:42,480 --> 00:19:49,500 basically the time course of Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal dementia, blueberries, wherever these skin cells have come from. 182 00:19:49,500 --> 00:19:54,240 And this will allow us not only to understand the molecular processes that are going on, 183 00:19:54,240 --> 00:20:01,860 but also to be able to screen huge amounts of drugs in a quicker and easier manner. 184 00:20:01,860 --> 00:20:06,360 So that's a huge area of research that's going on at the moment that a lot of people are involved. 185 00:20:06,360 --> 00:20:10,050 And we'll hear more about that, I think, from DPI can. 186 00:20:10,050 --> 00:20:18,960 We've also got a Drug Discovery Alliance, which is three drug discovery institutes, one here in Oxford, one in Cambridge and one at UCLA. 187 00:20:18,960 --> 00:20:24,840 And that's really to make sure that all this interesting stuff that's going on in 188 00:20:24,840 --> 00:20:29,640 academic research labs up and down the country doesn't stay in academic research labs. 189 00:20:29,640 --> 00:20:35,880 I think researchers often have a tendency to get very focussed in on one one protein 190 00:20:35,880 --> 00:20:39,960 in one signalling pathway and then think once they once they found out what it does, 191 00:20:39,960 --> 00:20:47,550 job done. We want to encourage them to get their targets to these drug discovery institutes to make sure then that medicinal chemists, 192 00:20:47,550 --> 00:20:56,640 biologists can take them, design drugs and and basically start early phase drug discovery for Alzheimer's and other causes of dementia. 193 00:20:56,640 --> 00:21:02,610 So we launched the this year. And so it's going to be really exciting to see the progress that these will make. 194 00:21:02,610 --> 00:21:09,930 And again, this can't just be about people in the lab. We need clinical expertise to make sure that people on the right track, 195 00:21:09,930 --> 00:21:17,760 that we're really tackling the the the key issues that are important in the clinic. 196 00:21:17,760 --> 00:21:23,160 At more the clinical phase, we've also launched a clinical trials fund, 197 00:21:23,160 --> 00:21:31,770 and this will fund phase one and phase two clinical trials to basically get, again, academic projects off the ground. 198 00:21:31,770 --> 00:21:37,200 Phase three trials are hugely expensive. So this is out of our reach for the moment. 199 00:21:37,200 --> 00:21:48,470 But the hope is by getting them started, then that will mean there's more leverage for funding from from pharma, from from other funding bodies. 200 00:21:48,470 --> 00:21:57,800 We also have the Alzheimer's Research UK Research Network, and a lot of you come from all over the country and hopefully the networks continue, you, 201 00:21:57,800 --> 00:22:04,730 the research network basically aims to unite biomedical dementia researchers 202 00:22:04,730 --> 00:22:09,830 across the country because often there'll be someone struggling with a problem, 203 00:22:09,830 --> 00:22:16,510 for example, in Oxford and those people in Newcastle that are actually experts in a particular technique. 204 00:22:16,510 --> 00:22:20,210 The aim is to bring people of different backgrounds together. 205 00:22:20,210 --> 00:22:30,350 So that might be, you know, bioengineers working with biologists, working with clinicians to solve certain problems. 206 00:22:30,350 --> 00:22:35,280 And, yeah, there's the list of the centres along the along the side there. 207 00:22:35,280 --> 00:22:40,670 And if you go if you're in Oxford, the network coordinator is Richard Waed Martin. 208 00:22:40,670 --> 00:22:42,830 So you can email him if you'd like to get involved. 209 00:22:42,830 --> 00:22:50,000 But if you go on our website, there's a list of all the other network coordinators if you'd like to get involved in your your local centre. 210 00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:54,650 And and really, I mean, these provide money for pump priming projects. 211 00:22:54,650 --> 00:22:59,310 So pump priming project is basically small amounts of cash to get an idea off the ground. 212 00:22:59,310 --> 00:23:06,440 So often when people want to be able to test the hypothesis, there may not be money left on on a grant that they're working on. 213 00:23:06,440 --> 00:23:13,440 This provides a bit of extra cash for them to gather pilot data that you can go on to to apply for bigger amounts of money. 214 00:23:13,440 --> 00:23:16,500 But I think mainly for you, if you're not working in research, 215 00:23:16,500 --> 00:23:22,850 there's still a huge amount of benefit to the network because this science days, public engagement opportunities. 216 00:23:22,850 --> 00:23:31,040 And I think if you do have an interest in research, it's really good to be able to go along to those here, what's happening in your local centre. 217 00:23:31,040 --> 00:23:36,230 So that can hopefully help you in your day to day jobs in the ward. 218 00:23:36,230 --> 00:23:40,380 Just to have a bit more of a background about what what research is going on near, 219 00:23:40,380 --> 00:23:48,860 you also were always after clinicians for our public engagement activities because because you basically speak to people all day, 220 00:23:48,860 --> 00:23:52,520 often a lot better of explaining stuff to them than others. 221 00:23:52,520 --> 00:23:58,640 So definitely get involved in your local networks and if you're interested. 222 00:23:58,640 --> 00:24:07,940 So how can we help you? Well, aside from providing you money, hopefully we can also provide you with a lot of resources that you might find 223 00:24:07,940 --> 00:24:11,600 useful to be able to pass into the way of the people you come into contact with. 224 00:24:11,600 --> 00:24:16,430 So we produce health information, which is accredited by the information standard, 225 00:24:16,430 --> 00:24:20,210 and these are basically booklets on each of the different causes of dementia. 226 00:24:20,210 --> 00:24:26,450 But as well, you know, key themes such as genetics risk frequently asked questions. 227 00:24:26,450 --> 00:24:34,160 We disseminate these for free to all memory clinics, GP surgeries and libraries across the UK. 228 00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:37,280 Obviously, some of you won't necessarily fall into those categories. 229 00:24:37,280 --> 00:24:45,050 So if you would like some of these just to be able to give out to families, patients, just to have a role where you're working, just give us a call. 230 00:24:45,050 --> 00:24:51,410 They are Wilfred's. They will be more than happy to send as many as you need out. 231 00:24:51,410 --> 00:24:56,210 We can also help with fielding difficult enquiries about research, which, 232 00:24:56,210 --> 00:25:01,130 as you are all very busy in dementia, may not be the only thing you have to deal with. 233 00:25:01,130 --> 00:25:03,320 You might not know all of the research that's going on. 234 00:25:03,320 --> 00:25:11,120 So we've all seen headlines like this recently, more concerning the one about Alzheimer's transmissible. 235 00:25:11,120 --> 00:25:18,830 So I work in the press team at Alzheimer's Research UK and we're constantly reacting to news stories like this, providing comments, 236 00:25:18,830 --> 00:25:24,710 which means that we read all the papers behind all of these headlines and we have a dementia research info line. 237 00:25:24,710 --> 00:25:27,350 So if you ever do get asked queries because, you know, 238 00:25:27,350 --> 00:25:32,240 you're seeing people they've seen on the front page of the Express that morning about chocolate, 239 00:25:32,240 --> 00:25:35,840 pomegranates, coconut oil, you can always pass them our number. 240 00:25:35,840 --> 00:25:38,990 And we'll be happy to explain the science that's going on behind that, 241 00:25:38,990 --> 00:25:44,330 because there is so much out there in the media and it's great to raise awareness, 242 00:25:44,330 --> 00:25:49,940 but always it comes with the the negative side that people can get unnecessarily 243 00:25:49,940 --> 00:25:57,380 concerned or perhaps change their diet and when that's not necessarily warranted. 244 00:25:57,380 --> 00:26:05,300 So do feel free to pass people away. This one's about how can we help you and how can you help us? 245 00:26:05,300 --> 00:26:09,050 So join dementia research launched in February this year. 246 00:26:09,050 --> 00:26:13,370 And it's an initiative from the National Institutes of Health Research. 247 00:26:13,370 --> 00:26:17,810 And the aim is to get as many people as possible involved in clinical research. 248 00:26:17,810 --> 00:26:24,200 There's no point US funding clinicians to do research if there's nobody to take part in those studies. 249 00:26:24,200 --> 00:26:28,010 Since it launched, over 11000 people have already signed up. 250 00:26:28,010 --> 00:26:35,240 And there's all kinds of studies from, you know, Internet questionnaires about lifestyle all the way up to, 251 00:26:35,240 --> 00:26:39,740 you know, brain scans to follow people over a number of years. 252 00:26:39,740 --> 00:26:47,560 We need lots of people to sign up for this. So whether you're interested in getting involved in research and you need people to. 253 00:26:47,560 --> 00:26:53,920 Part in your studies or whether you're just coming into contact with people with dementia and their families on a day to day basis, 254 00:26:53,920 --> 00:27:01,770 do you give joint dementia research to plug? Because we need as many people as possible to get involved. 255 00:27:01,770 --> 00:27:09,210 So I suppose the low points out this morning is not so much the obvious dementia research as a huge challenge, 256 00:27:09,210 --> 00:27:16,680 but there are also lots of opportunities. So while Alzheimer's Research UK and the government focus on increased investment, 257 00:27:16,680 --> 00:27:22,830 increased research capacity and providing the infrastructure, which we're going to hear more about now, 258 00:27:22,830 --> 00:27:33,450 we also need clinicians for your viewpoints, your new ideas, and also encouraging as many people as possible to take part in clinical research. 259 00:27:33,450 --> 00:27:44,859 So that's it for me. I'm happy to answer questions now, or you can drop me an email if you don't pay.