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BRAIN-MEND: Biological Resource Analysis To Identify New Mechanisms And Phenotypes In Neurodegenerative Diseases
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$861,866.00
Summary
Current classification of neurodegenerative diseases (ND) based on clinical phenotypes does not take into account underlying disease heterogeneity, or overlapping disease mechanisms, thus hindering therapy development. Segregation and re-classification of ND phenotypes is urgently needed. BRAIN-MEND will reclassify existing phenotypic classifications using using pathway and network analyses within and across complex NDs.
Genetic Investigations For Prodromal Alzheimer’s Disease
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$719,374.00
Summary
The disease process in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) begins decades before a diagnosis is made. We urgently need to investigate this pre-symptomatic stage to learn how the disease process begins, and allow the development of treatments that work before the brain is irreparably damaged. I will use genetic risk factors for AD to predict who is most at risk of developing AD. I will look for early changes and easily accessible markers, including the use of state of the art brain imaging.
Identifying The Epigenomic Fingerprint Of Coronary Heart Disease In Chinese Adults With Type 2 Diabetes
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$596,663.00
Summary
Once people get diabetes, even good glucose control may be insufficient to prevent its complications. Diabetes results in molecular imprinting contributing to an increased risk of heart disease. We believe it is possible to identify this imprinted risk by a sophisticated analysis of a standard blood sample. Validating this hypothesis will lead to new biomarkers to identify individuals at increased risk of heart attacks as well as new strategies for the prevention and treatment of heart disease.
BRIDGET: BRain Imaging, Cognition, Dementia And Next Generation GEnomics: A Transdisciplinary Approach To Search For Risk And Protective Factors Of Neurodegenerative Disease
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,081,489.00
Summary
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) begins many years before diagnosis and yet its aetiology is still poorly understood. The BRIDGET consortium aims to identify genetic variants that are associated with structural brain ageing, cognitive performance, and dementia risk in richly phenotyped international and Australian population-based samples. This work aims to provide crucial information on the molecular pathways leading to AD, potentially leading to improved health outcomes for our ageing population.
Prospective Imaging Study Of Ageing: Genes, Brain & Behaviour
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$6,465,047.00
Summary
While the burden of dementia in Australia occurs late in life, the underlying brain disease accumulates for decades prior to dementia onset. Disease modifying interventions have the greatest potential to avert later disease burden if introduced during this crucial window, well before the onset of clear cognitive decline. To reduce Australia's future dementia burden, it is thus imperative to identify those Australians at risk of dementia whilst they are still relatively young.
Genetic Mechanisms That Moderate Effects Of Aβ Accumulation In Preclinical Alzheimer's Disease
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$603,525.00
Summary
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia, and the number of people living with it will triple by 2050. There is currently no cure for AD, and the only means of slow the growing epidemic is to delay onset. We propose to understand the complex interplay between genetic, cognitive, neuroimaging and biological markers of AD in order to better understand the disease process, and in turn identify high-risk individuals for clinical trials and uncover disease-modifying strategies.
Mental illnesses are the largest single cause of disability and costs the economy $56.7 billion per year. Depression and anxiety in those with dementia lead to poorer outcomes with reduced quality of life, poor functional status and worsening cognition, despite under-treatment. I will develop an integrated network in Australia to maximise treatment outcomes for depression and anxiety in dementia.
Spatial Learning And Memory In Huntington's Disease
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$475,969.00
Summary
This project will develop a spatial learning and memory test battery sensitive to dementia in Huntington’s disease, relate the task to atrophy in key brain regions, and then apply the test in a clinical trial aimed at developing a regeneration of damaged brain regions in Huntington’s disease. The overarching goal is to develop a cognitive test that is closely aligned to brain pathology in dementia as a tool for more precise, mechanism-based investigations in the dementia clinical trial setting.