UPDATED: 15th April 2005
The network centre brings together researchers at the Universities of Birmingham, Aston, Warwick, Leicester and Loughborough.
Research on Alzheimer’s disease has made great progress, particularly in the 15 years since APP was discovered as the first genetic cause of the disease. Despite this there are many gaps in knowledge including the environmental causes, the unaccounted for component of heritability, the detail of how Aß leads from synaptic dysfunction to neuronal loss and crucially how to intervene to delay, slow or mitigate the effects of the disease.
The study of complex diseases like Alzheimer’s disease necessitates a multi-disciplinary approach, with analysis not just proceeding on different levels but in a truly integrated fashion. The network centre is to enable existing Alzheimer researchers in the Midlands to strengthen their ties, develop exciting and innovative new projects and, together with the rest of the ART networks, to make further inroads into understanding this devastating disease.
The researchers involved in the Midlands ART Network are based at the universities of Birmingham, Aston, Warwick, Leicester and Loughborough. These institutions include the full range of higher education environments, but all have active research programmes across many disciplines, as well as a commitment to public education. Geographically the four cities make up a discrete quadrangle in the Midlands with good travel connections, all being within one hour drive of each other.
Aston University has strengths in health research and technology. The university recently opened the Aston Academy for Life Sciences and hosts the Wellcome Trust laboratory for MEG studies. The School of Life and Health Sciences is acknowledged as one of the leading centres of health sciences within the UK, with an outstanding reputation for teaching and research. Research into ageing within the School is multidisciplinary with active research across the divisions of biomedical sciences, health sciences and neurosciences.
The University of Birmingham is one of the leading research Universities in the UK, with internationally strong research groupings in biological and behavioural sciences. Linked to the project are departments in Psychology (5*) and Sport and Exercise Sciences (6*), as well as 5* strengths within the Medical School. There are MRC Co-operative and collaborative group awards for aging-related research, and programme grant support from MRC, the Stroke Association and the Wellcome Trust. The University has also recently supported the development of the Birmingham University Imaging Centre (BUIC), with a strong orientation towards researching brain pathologies. The school of Sport and Exercise Sciences was recently upgraded to 6* in the RAE reclassification and has strength in interdisciplinary research. The school was recently awarded two SPARC grants for ageing research. The Division of Neuroscience (5*) has an international reputation for research in neurodegeneration, neuropharmacology, neurophysiology, psychiatry and intellectual disability.
The University of Leicester is one of the top twenty research-intensive universities and has a strong focus on the biological sciences. The university includes the only RAE 5* rated Genetics department in the country, which has strengths in the effect of genomic diversity on human disease through an MRC co-op on ‘Variability and pathology of the human genome’. The university is also home to the MRC Toxicology Unit, which has as one of its key themes the responses of the nervous system to insults leading to neurodegeneration.
In recent years Loughborough University has performed exceedingly well in The Times Good University Guide, including multiple top-10 ratings since 2004. In 2006, Loughborough was ranked 6th (out of 109), which identifies it as a top university in the UK, immediately after Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College, London School of Economics and University College London. Human Sciences at Loughborough is unique in the UK for its multidisciplinary international research in human development and ageing, which includes epidemiological, genetic, physiological, biochemical, cognitive and sleep research, and the effects of ageing on work and health which has influenced policy and practice around the world. The department consisting of fewer than 30 academic staff obtains over 2 million GBP annually in funding for high quality research. Funders include research councils, industry and charities such as the Wellcome Trust and the ART who have recently funded a dementia prevalence study in Indonesia.
The University of Warwick is consistently ranked within the top five Universities in the UK with a large fraction of their departments receiving top research ratings of 5 or 5*. A major development was the establishment of a joint Warwick-Leicester Medical school. The Biological Sciences at Warwick University is a vibrant multidisciplinary research-led department covering research themes from microbiology, virology and structural biological to field and whole animal studies. Biological Sciences and the Warwick Medical School have core joint research programmes with direct impact in public health. One of their main joint research units is dedicated to neurosciences and electrophysiology with a particular emphasis in neurodegenerative processes. The Age Study under the direction of Prof Elizabeth Maylor maintains a panel of several hundred older volunteers who participate in studies of normal cognitive ageing and also provide matched controls for dementia studies.
We share a commitment to education of both our students and the wider public. Many of us teach undergraduate and postgraduate courses which include issues relating to Alzheimer’s disease as important components. All our universities are increasingly taking roles in the public understanding of science and outreach to the local community. To take the example of one of our Departments, that of Genetics at the University of Leicester, we hold an annual public open day to explain our research (including the Alzheimer interests of Talbot and Brookes); educate local school teachers and pupils (both by academics visiting schools and the pupils coming to university); and through running the Leicester Café Scientifique (organised by PhD student working on AD). In Loughborough community outreach is performed via lectures at the John Storer house to educate professional carers and lay people about dementia.
There are existing links between applicants and the local branches of the Alzheimer Society or its QRD advisory network e.g. Dr. Talbot gave an introduction to genetic analysis of dementia to the Leicestershire QRD network. Prof Lindesay is a member of the scientific advisory board of the ART.
There are a large number of existing collaborations between applicants, which demonstrates the present and future potential for the network centre to operate in an integrated fashion:
1. Hainsworth and Prettyman (ART funded project studying anti-apoptotic cFLIP proteins in Alzheimer's dementia)
2. Prettyman, Talbot and Lindesay (collection of a Leicester-based AD case-control cohort).
3. Hainsworth and Talbot ( Wellcome Trust application to extend studies on cFLIP proteins).
4. Talbot and Lendon (ART funded project studying heparin-modifying genes in AD).
5. Brookes and Talbot ( Wellcome Trust application to investigate role of genomic structural variation in AD).
6. Griffiths and Aldred (Antioxidants and dietary supplementation).
7. Lindesay, Hogervorst & Bandelow (use of cognitive test battery to identify treatment effects in AD).
8. Nagy, Hogervorst & Bandelow (using a validated computerized diagnostic system to standardize differential dementia diagnostics)
9. Hainsworth and Prettyman with Prof James Lowe, Dept of Histopathology, Queens Medical Centre, University of Nottingham: ART grant application and access to human post mortem brain tissue.
10. Maylor, Humphreys and Kourtzi (developing protocols for functional imaging in elderly populations; developing behavioural screens for measuring cognitive change in relation to underlying brain pathology)
11. Aldred and Talbot (Research into Ageing application to assess the identification of biomarkers for AD by proteomic and genomic techniques.)
12. Nagy, Aldred, Hogervorst and Bandelow (MRC application: Epidemiological studies in neurodegeneration (dementia, Parkinson’s disease and motor neurone disease) with metabolic, proteomic and genetic analyses)
The applicants have a wide range of existing research collaborations including with current ART network centres as listed below:
• Bristol: Brookes with Dr. Pat Kehoe
• Cambridge: Hogervorst with Prof Carol Brayne (ART), Prof Huppert and Dr Matthews
• Manchester: Talbot & Lendon with neuropathologist Dr. David Mann
• Nottingham
o Talbot with Dr. Paula Moran
o Lendon with Dr. Kevin Morgan
o Hainsworth and Prettyman with Prof J Lowe
• Oxford: Hogervorst & Nagy with Prof. A. David Smith (ART)
To establish our network we held a preliminary meeting on 21st June 2006 (see attached meeting schedule). This meeting, which was held at the University of Leicester, brought together individuals from eight of the research groups, with the other applicants sending their apologies. It formed an opportunity to present each group’s research interests and to identify potential overlaps and collaborative possibilities. At the end there was time for a general discussion about the process of deepening our links, including this application to the Alzheimer Research Trust.
There is evidence that the meeting succeeded in its aims, forming new relationships (two of the Birmingham researchers met for the first time in Leicester) and collaborations. A new collaboration was formed from the meeting involving the inclusion of the planned Leicester AD cohort into an application to the ART from Aldred to apply proteomic technology to find dementia biomarkers. A planned collaboration between Talbot and Hogervorst arising from the meeting will involve a genetics extension to Hogervorst’s present epidemiological study of AD in Indonesia and possibly of the Oxford Project To Investigate Memory and Ageing (with Prof. A.D. Smith).
At the Leicester meeting it was arranged that applicants attending the ICAD conference in Madrid would meet for lunch on 17th July to further our connections. That meeting has itself led to new plans, including by Hogervorst to co-ordinate a bid for the Wellcome trust/MRC funded ‘Master Class’ on dementia taught by network members.
1. The bulk of the money will be used to employ a part-time administrator to help organise the annual meetings described below and to keep the website up to date. This may be a part-time PhD student working with one of us on an Alzheimer research project.
2. We will arrange an annual meeting of network members to present updates of our scientific research, strengthen personal connections and discuss collaborations. This meeting would provide an opportunity to allow members to vote on the use of any core funding. The second annual meeting will be in June 2007, but an additional meeting may be arranged immediately in the event of a successful outcome to this bid.
3. We will hold an annual public awareness day, to be hosted by each of the four cities in turn. The day will be advertised through the local Alzheimer Society branches, the relevant patient clinics e.g. geriatric psychiatry, the network website and potentially through adverts in local papers. The format of the days will be finalised closer to the time but may consist of talks aimed at the lay public, poster presentations and practical displays.
4. We will set up an ART Midlands webpage (linked to the national ART website) which will give descriptions of our research projects and advertise the next public awareness day.
5. We will attend the annual national ART meeting.
Formation of the network will create a community of Alzheimer researchers in the Heart of England. Each of us brings a different perspective on the problem. This network will create the conditions for developing research proposals that cross discipline boundaries. These proposals will lead to grant applications, including to the ART. The end result will be synergy in our thinking and our endeavours towards understanding, curing and managing dementia. The network will promote public understanding of dementia and the need for further scientific research. Together with the other ART network centres we will strengthen the scientific base of Alzheimer research in the UK.