Category Research News (General)

In their latest brain imaging study on women at risk for Alzheimer’s disease, York University researchers have found deterioration in the pathways that serve to communicate signals between different brain regions needed for performing everyday activities such as driving a…

Translational research for neurodegenerative disease depends intimately upon animal models. Unfortunately, promising therapies developed using mouse models mostly fail in clinical trials, highlighting uncertainty about how well mouse models mimic human neurodegenerative disease at the molecular level. This study compared…

The Joint Programming Initiative “A Healthy Diet for A Healthy Life” has launched a joint transnational call for research proposals in the area of Nutrition and Cognitive Function. The joint action “Nutrition and Cognitive Function” (NutriCog) aims at promoting research…

Five months into his five-year term as research commissioner, Carlos Moedas spoke to Nature Magazine about his hopes and ambitions for the scientific programmes run by the European Union (EU), particularly the huge seven-year €80-billion (US$86-billion) Horizon 2020 (H2020) research…

The Dementia Discovery Fund, which is being established by the UK government with initial commitments totalling $100 million, brings together leading pharmaceutical companies, the UK government and Alzheimer’s Research UK to address the rising threat posed by dementia by supporting…

On 16 and 17 March 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) hosted its first Ministerial Conference on Global Action Against Dementia. Ministers from around the world, as well as experts from the research, clinical and NGO communities, came together in…

A small sensor, headphones and a mobile phone – the elements of a prototype kit that is giving hope of relief for sufferers of Parkinson’s disease. A European Framework Programme-backed research project being spearheaded in Barcelona does not offer a…

GAP, initiated by the New York Academy of Sciences and Global CEO Initiative, is moving one step closer to reaching its goal of establishing a global, trial-ready platform for Alzheimer’s disease. The Global Alzheimer’s Platform (GAP) and the Innovative Medicines…

Adult neurons are touchy things. Too much protein can throw them off course, resulting in neurodegeneration. After showing how mutant ATAXIN1 (the protein associated with the neurodegenerative disorder spinocerebellar ataxia 1) cannot fold and be discarded properly, resulting in malfunctioning…

The current policy approach to tackling dementia is socially and economically unsustainable, according to a new OECD report. Countries need to take action now to improve the lives of people living with dementia and their carers, prioritise public research on…

Genetic risk for Parkinson’s disease (PD) may be due as much to multiple genes with small individual effects as to single high-risk genes, research suggests. Nigel Williams (Cardiff University School of Medicine, UK) and colleagues used data from five PD…

Researchers have the first conclusive proof that changes to lifestyle among the over-60s can slow mental decline – raising the prospects of dementia prevention programmes that cut your risk of the disease. Findings from a two-year study of more than 1,200…

Apple recently announced ResearchKit, a new software framework that turns the iPhone into a powerful tool for medical research. In conjunction with the announcement of ResearchKit, The Michael J. Fox Foundation is announcing the launch of Fox Insight, a Web-based virtual clinical…

The Joint Programming Initiative “A Healthy Diet for A Healthy Life” is launching a new joint transnational call for research proposals on “Nutrition and Cognitive Function”. The call aims to support small transnational research consortia with innovative and interdisciplinary approaches…

A study published in the journal Human Mutation revealed new genetic mutations in a domain of a dynein gene. The study, entitled “Novel mutations in the DYNC1H1 tail domain refine the genetic and clinical spectrum of dyneinopathies,” unlocks new insights…

The Accelerating Medicines Partnership (AMP) is a new venture between the US National Institutes for Health (NIH), 10 bio-pharmaceutical companies and several non-profit organizations to transform the current model for developing new diagnostics and treatments by jointly identifying and validating…

Creatine monohydrate doesn’t appear to slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease, according to research published in the February 10 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The new study included 1,741 people in the United States and…

SuperAgers have distinctly different looking brains than those of normal older people, and the same memory capacity as a younger person. Understanding their unique brains could lead to new treatments for dementia, researchers say. Published Jan. 28 in the Journal…

Three leading research funders from the UK and North America have joined forces to launch a new global initiative called MEND or, MEchanisms of cellular death in NeuroDegeneration, with a fund of $1.25 million USD for targeted research into brain…

According to a recent study from a team of researchers at Tel Aviv University, a mutation in a specific neuroprotective protein called ADNP has different expressions between males and females. This research adds new insights to what is currently known…

With several therapeutic approaches in development for Huntington’s disease, there is a need for easily accessible biomarkers to monitor disease progression and therapy response. Researchers at Leiden University Medical Center in The Netherlands have discovered a panel of five genes…

Belgian scientists have completed a study, reprogramming skin cells from three dementia patients into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) – immature cells that mimic stem cells taken from early-stage embryos. Their findings, which revealed a signalling pathway linked to frontotemporal…

In acknowledgement of the high societal relevance of neuroscientific research, a joint transnational call on “Ethical, Legal, and Social Aspects (ELSA) of Neuroscience” was launched by the ERANET-NEURON network on January 9, 2015. The aim of the call is to…

Parkinson’s disease has an insidious onset and is diagnosed when typical motor features occur. Several motor and non-motor features can occur before diagnosis, early in the disease process. This study aimed to assess the association between first presentation of several…

Some cases of Alzheimer’s disease progress quickly, mimicking prion-based Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). Many people with this form of Alzheimer’s are misdiagnosed, because clinicians have no reliable way to distinguish between the two disorders. In the January 5 JAMA Neurology, researchers…

The personal genetics company 23andMe, Inc. has announced an agreement with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, to generate whole genome sequencing data for approximately 3,000 people in 23andMe’s Parkinson’s disease community. The goal of the collaboration is to…

The Dementia in Europe Yearbook 2014, produced by Alzheimer Europe is a comparative report on care pathways for people with dementia living at home in Europe. The pathways to get a diagnosis of dementia are complex and are likely to…

Age-related neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer’s disease and Huntington’s disease (HD) consistently show elevated DNA damage, but the relevant molecular pathways in disease pathogenesis remain unclear. One attractive gene is that encoding the ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM) protein, a kinase involved in…

A new study entitled “Evaluating the relationship between amyloid-β and α-synuclein phosphorylated at Ser129 in dementia with Lewy bodies and Parkinson’s disease” reports a correlation between α-synuclein and amyloid-β in the brain of patients affected by neurodegenerative diseases, such as…

Marisol Touraine, Minister of Social Affairs, Health and Women’s Rights, Geneviève Fioraso, State Secretary for Higher Education and Research, and Laurence Rossignol, Secretary of State for Families, People elderly and Autonomy, recently launched the French National Plan neurodegenerative diseases 2014-2019.…

In a pilot study, researchers at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of the University Medical Center of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have recently gained new insights into how it may in future be possible to treat patients with…

Eli Lilly and Company and AstraZeneca announced the start of recruitment of patients for the Phase II/III AMARANTH clinical trial of an inhibitor of beta secretes cleaving enzyme (BACE), currently under development as a promising therapy for Alzheimer’s disease. The…

Researchers from the School of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) blocked a sleep-regulating protein, orexin, in mice with a form of Alzheimer’s disease, making them sleep longer and blocking brain symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. The research appeared…

Wearable devices that are being trialled by Parkinson’s UK to improve symptom management for sufferers have been granted an EU patent, signalling a green light for the devices to enter the European market in the near future. The Global Kinetics…

The first 25 research projects of the Dutch “Delta Plan Dementia” have been announced and will start before the end of the year. The studies vary in focus, from new treatments and prevention to better patient care and support. Results…

To support countries in their national efforts to recognize dementia as a public health priority and to take action, the WHO will host first Ministerial Conference on dementia in March 2015, expanding advocacy efforts to 193 member states. Taking place…

Researchers in Oxford, UK have discovered a specific network in the brain that is the first to degenerate with age and also the most vulnerable spot for the development of schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease. The study, published in the journal…

A crucial element of the Joint Programming Process is the alignment of national and European strategies and research programmes with Strategic Research Agendas (SRAs) of Joint Programming Initiatives (JPI). The High-level Working group on Joint Programming (GPC) has produced a…

In a guest post, Prof. Elena Cattaneo, University of Milan, Italy reports in EUROSTEMCELL on recent research that examines how a particular type of cell develops in the human brain, and how studies like this fit into the overall picture…

Experts in innovation in care and risk reduction recently met at the third Global Dementia Legacy event in Japan to explore how new technology can improve the lives of those with dementia, as well as looking at whether lifestyle choices…

Parkinson’s disease patients can find hope in a new treatment, thanks to stem cell research that successfully replaces damaged nerves. Swedish researchers have figured out how to create neurons that become lost in the brains of Parkinson’s disease patients. They…

In a special issue of the Cell Press journal Neuron, experts debated the challenges associated with “translational neuroscience,” and the efforts that should be made to commercialize advances made in the laboratory so that patients can benefit from them. Despite…

Using data from old clinical trials, two groups of researchers have found a better way to predict how amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) progresses in different patients. The winning algorithms—designed by non-ALS experts—outperformed the judgments of a group of ALS clinicians…

The Medical Research Council (MRC) Dementias Research Platform UK (DPUK) is a multi-million pound public-private partnership, developed and led by the MRC, to accelerate progress in, and open up, dementias research. The DPUK’s aims are early detection, improved treatment and ultimately,…

The annual meeting of the American Society of Neuroscience 2014 is taking place on Nov 15-17th in Washington DC, USA. A number of meeting bloggers will be sharing their experiences at the conference. These blogs are only a few of the…

Researchers studying frontotemporal degeneration (FTD) disease, a leading cause of early onset dementia, will receive more than $30 million over the next five years in grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The funding will be used to further…

In the first post on this new online service, Dr Ed Wild and Dr Jeff Carroll talk about the five new clinical trials enrolling now or starting soon for Huntington’s disease. Plus, a detailed discussion of the eagerly-awaited clinical trial…

In the UK, to support clinical and care staff, managers and estates colleagues, the King’s Fund has produced a range of resources to enable hospitals, care homes, primary care premises and specialist housing providers to become more dementia friendly. The…

The 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has honored three neuroscientists. John O’Keefe, along with May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser, discovered cells that form a positioning system in the brain — our hard-wired GPS. Those cells mark our position,…

A Small Number of Patients With Fetal-Cell Transplants Are Thriving Two Decades Later. Several patients with Parkinson’s disease who received brain-tissue transplants from fetuses in the early 1990s have needed little or no medicine to treat the disease ever since—an…