Moving Behavioural Neuroscience & Neuroeconomics Into Dementia Prevention: Spatial Tracking And Economic Decision-making As New Sensitive Measures Of Daily Function
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$595,588.00
Summary
This project will aim to develop new measures for clinical trials by learning the relationship between older people's movements around the house, ability to make decisions about their health and finance and their cognitive performance. These instruments may aid future trials of drugs and other interventions for preventing dementia by indicating how basic behavioural patterns respond to interventions.
Identifying Novel Lipid And Genetic Signatures Of Metabolic Disease In Early Childhood
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$354,592.00
Summary
Both our genetic makeup and environment can contribute to the development of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Although onset usually occurs in adulthood, the progression towards disease can start in early life. Early childhood represents an opportunity for intervention to avoid adverse health outcomes in adulthood. This proposal combines two established birth cohorts from Singapore (GUSTO) and Australia (BIS) to examine the genetic and environmental origins of metabolic diseases.
Novel Assessment And Intervention For Dementia: An Inter-disciplinary Translational Approach
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$720,021.00
Summary
This program of research focuses on i) a highly novel internationally competitive program of work focusing on the neural network correlates of sleep in dementia, sleep as a risk factor and the efficacy of sleep-wake interventions in reducing cognitive decline; ii) Innovative technologies for widespread screening of preclinical dementia and early intervention and iii) clinical trials focused on the testing of a of novel, highly translatable dementia risk reduction interventions.
This project will investigate the causes of respiratory disease and poor lung function across the life course. Using existing lung health data from Australia and Europe, we will determine which behavioral, environmental, occupational, nutritional, other modifiable lifestyle, or genetic factors play a role in lung health. This research will enable the development of a personalised risk predictor application for implementation with patients and health care providers as well as the general public.
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.
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.