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Virtual reality (VR) can identify early Alzheimer’s disease more accurately than ‘gold standard’ cognitive tests currently in use, suggests new research from the ¹ú¼ÊÃ×À¼¶ÔÕó¿ÆĪ.

Wren Therapeutics secures £18 million in funding to tackle protein misfolding diseases.

Researchers have developed a new way to target the toxic particles that destroy healthy brain cells in Alzheimer’s disease. 

The Chemistry of Health building, a new facility dedicated to the use of chemical techniques to combat disease, in particular neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, was officially opened today in ¹ú¼ÊÃ×À¼¶ÔÕó¿ÆĪ. 

Researchers have shown how cholesterol – a molecule normally linked with cardiovascular diseases – may also play an important role in the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s disease. 

Recent advances in brain imaging have enabled scientists to show for the first time that a key protein which causes nerve cell death spreads throughout the brain in Alzheimer’s disease – and hence that blocking its spread may prevent the disease from taking hold.

The theory that education protects against Alzheimer’s disease has been given further weight by new research from the ¹ú¼ÊÃ×À¼¶ÔÕó¿ÆĪ, funded by the European Union. The study is published today in The BMJ.

Researchers at the ¹ú¼ÊÃ×À¼¶ÔÕó¿ÆĪ have designed antibodies that target the protein deposits in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease, and stop their production. 

Why do we age when we get older? Epigenetics may hold the answer – but could it one day help us turn back the clock? Professor Wolf Reik from the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience at the ¹ú¼ÊÃ×À¼¶ÔÕó¿ÆĪ and Dr Oliver Stegle from the European Bioinformatics Institute look at the ‘epigenetic clock’ in The Conversation.

A team of scientists who a few years ago identified a major pathway that leads to brain cell death in mice, have now found two drugs that block the pathway and prevent neurodegeneration. The drugs caused minimal side effects in the mice and one is already licensed for use in humans, so is ready for clinical trials.