Alzheimer’s Research UK is so grateful for The Pixel Fund’s generous support towards our pioneering dementia research since 2013.
Most recently, The Pixel Fund has supported a groundbreaking project called Insight 46 at University College London, led by Professors Nick Fox and Jon Schott.
The study involves volunteers from a cohort which first launched in March 1946 by the MRC National Survey of Health and Development (NSHD).
All the volunteers were born in the same week in March 1946, and the study has followed the participants throughout their lives. The volunteers are now 72 years old, and have already provided researchers with an unprecedented level of detail about their medical history, lifestyle and activities.
While age is the biggest known risk factor for Alzheimer’s, this unique study accounts for that, as all 500 volunteers were born in the same week.
We now have a once in a lifetime opportunity to study the volunteers’ brain health in later life, and look for tell-tale signs of Alzheimer’s. By comparing the health of the brain and performance on memory and thinking tests with the genetic make-up of the volunteers and their lifestyle and life experiences, the team continue to gain unparalleled insight into the risk factors for the disease.
The team have discovered links between blood pressure and dementia, as well as researching the potential impact of emotional and mental wellbeing on dementia. There is also a focus on genetic risk and levels of the Alzheimer’s hallmark protein, amyloid, in the brain.
All these valuable findings are allowing us to close in on a critical window for future clinical trials to take place to have the best chance of success. Without the support of charitable organisations such as The Pixel Fund, we wouldn’t be able to fund such vital work. Thank you.
“My main feelings about being part of the Survey are curiosity and a bit of pride. If, in our backgrounds, there is a ‘why’ for dementia, a reason some of us develop the condition and others don’t, we have to find it. We must do all we can, I think – and come together to beat it”
Roger, a member of the MRC National Survey of Health and Development cohort.
On behalf of Alzheimer’s Research UK