£2.5m boost for research into neurodegenerative disease
21 September 2005
£2.5m boost for research into neurodegenerative disease
The Medical Research Council (MRC) has announced £2.5m of funding to establish a new centre for research into neurodegeneration, in partnership with King’s College London. The MRC Centre for Neurodegenerative Research at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London will open later this year and will be directed by Professor Brian Anderton, a leading expert in Alzheimer’s disease. The mission of the Centre is to further understand the mechanisms involved in neurodegenerative disease and to translate this into new treatments and diagnostics. The Centre has particular strengths in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and Motor Neurone Disease (MND).
Over half a million people have Alzheimer’s disease in the UK and this number is likely to rise with the increase in the elderly population. It is estimated that there are up to 5,000 people with MND in the UK.
A key feature of this Centre is its capability to carry out translational research; bringing together scientists investigating the causative mechanisms of these conditions in the laboratory with clinical colleagues treating patients and conducting clinical trials. The combined laboratory and clinical investigations will seek to develop new therapeutic strategies as well as laboratory-based diagnostic methods. The Centre will also have additional expertise in neuro-imaging, neuro-psychology, epidemiological research and genetics, all of which are essential for improving understanding of these conditions and monitoring the effectiveness of new drugs.
The Director of the Centre, Professor Brian Anderton, said: “The Centre will bring together clinicians and basic scientists and foster a research environment in which they will work together and exchange ideas, in other words, translational research. This ‘bedside-to-bench and bench-to-bedside’ approach offers the best prospects for discovering new treatments for these progressive degenerative conditions and will also provide excellent training opportunities for both scientists and clinicians.”
The Chief Executive of the Medical Research Council, Professor Colin Blakemore added: “The establishment of this Centre provides substantial investment, support and co-ordination for research into Alzheimer’s, motor neurone diseases and other forms of neurodegeneration. Finding new treatments and diagnostic procedures for these devastating conditions is a priority area for research and the Centre at King’s will play a key role in a wider UK initiative to forge research and clinical collaborations in this area.”
Journalists should credit the MRC as the source of this story.
For further information, or to arrange an interview, please contact the MRC press office on 020 7637 6011
Notes to editors
1. The Medical Research Council (MRC) is a national organisation funded by the UK tax-payer. Its business is medical research aimed at improving human health; everyone stands to benefit from the outputs. The research it supports and the scientists it trains meet the needs of the health services, the pharmaceutical and other health-related industries and the academic world. MRC has funded work which has led to some of the most significant discoveries and achievements in medicine in the UK. About half of the MRC’s expenditure of more than £500 million is invested in its 40 Institutes, Units and Centres. The remaining half goes in the form of grant support and training awards to individuals and teams in universities and medical schools.
2. King's College London (www.kcl.ac.uk) is one of the two oldest and largest colleges of the University of London with over 13,800 undergraduate students and nearly 5,700 postgraduates in nine schools of study. It is a member of the Russell Group: a coalition of the UK's major research-based universities. The College has had 24 of its subject-areas awarded the highest rating of 5* and 5 for research quality, demonstrating excellence at an international level, and it has recently received an excellent result in its audit by the Quality Assurance Agency. King's is in the top group of UK universities for research earnings, with income from grants and contracts of £100 million, and has an annual turnover of more than £348 million. In 2004 the College was once again awarded an AA- financial credit rating from Standard & Poor's.
