UK Dementia Research Institute

Dr Rob Buckle, MRC

Dementias 2017 Conference, February 2016

UK Dementia Research Institute

• a joint MRC / Alzheimer’s Society / Alzheimer’s Research UK

investment of £250M to create a new, national Institute

• will bring together world-leading expertise in biomedical, care,

prevention and translational dementia research

• to be centred around the need for innovative, discovery science to

unlock our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the

development and progression of the dementias

• will invigorate the therapeutic pipeline and drive new approaches

to diagnosis, treatment, care provision and prevention

Dementias Platform UK

• a coordinated and integrated approach to dementias research

• £62m collaboration between 10 universities and 6 biopharma

companies, established by MRC in 2014

• combines the power of different types of population study to

compare healthy people with people at all stages of dementias,

and how this is affected by other conditions

• provides a gateway to scientists to share data from over 2 million

study volunteers from over 30 UK population studies

• provides state-of-the-art research networks in PET-MRI brain

imaging, stem cell models of disease, and informatics

• provides a programme of ‘first in human’, experimental clinical

studies

Accelerating the research agenda

Neurodegenerative disorders share common fundamental

biological pathways that should be amenable to medication:

• protein mis-folding and disrupted proteostasis

• mitochondrial dysfunction

• the seeding and spreading of toxic protein species

• dysfunction of the synapse and neuronal networks

• neuroinflammation

• disruption of brain homeostasis, the blood brain barrier and

the brain vasculature

• increased vulnerability to ageing processes

Goals of the DRI (1)

• a discovery pipeline for the rapid and efficient translation of novel

information into mechanistic understanding

• to identify, pioneer and refine concepts that can lead to new

diagnostic, preventive and therapeutic approaches

• to increase interaction and cross talk between research groups, and

promote multidisciplinary approaches

• to develop new technology-based approaches to provide more

effective patient care

• to provide a beacon to the community for sharing resources, tools,

expertise and knowledge, in order to stimulate the translational

research

Goals of the DRI (2)

• to interact closely with DPUK to add context to discovery science

regarding the clinical evolution of the dementias and their

interplay with other comorbidities

• to connect to bioindustry and other infrastructures of benefit to

dementia research, eg. the ARUK Drug Discovery Institutes,

NIHR TRCD etc

• to go beyond what is available and to create a multicentre world

leading institute able to

• attract international talent, fill knowledge gaps and enrich

and strengthen expertise

• spot, adapt and develop novel and innovative technology to

ensure DRI research is cutting edge

A key focus

• a prime focus for the DRI will be the initial, prodromal phases

of the different neurodegenerative diseases which may occur

decades before clinical presentation

• this will provide opportunities to:

• deliver the best therapeutic strategies because one can

interfere with the disease before massive neuronal loss

occurs.

• to identify homeostatic mechanisms and lead to a novel

wave of ‘protective’ or ‘symptomatic’ treatments

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Innovative mechanistic research

Patient-centred

Translational driven

Support and technology

A matrix approach

Interdisciplinary research (1)

Core focus on biomedical aspects:

● connect disciplines to open new possibilities

● cell, system and chemical biology

● computational biology and informatics

● immunology

● metabolomics

● engage novel technologies

● microscopy

● single-cell biology

● neurocircuits

● new cell and animal models - gene editing etc

Interdisciplinary research (2)

Care-related and public health aspects of dementia

• to be established under a second phase of development

• to be lad by an associate director

• to connect with mechanistic research

• to connect the DRI with the wider research activity taking

place in the UK in this area

The leadership approach

• to bring international talent to the UK

• to integrate new approaches with on-going lines of dementia

research and deliver a step change in impact

• to establish a vibrant, ambitious and interactive DRI

neuroscience community, promoting successful translational

efforts

• to provide the key platform to train the next generation of

scientists in dementia research

• to promote open science and set the highest standards in

research ethics and governance

DRI development

Developmental steps

• recruit director – Prof Dr Bart De Strooper

• select DRI hub - UCL

• select centres (biomedical focus)

• selection of DRI scientific programmes

• begin operation

• second phase development of care research agenda

• development of the DRI partnership activities

• formal opening

2016

2017

2018

2019

• £250M budget, will engage 400+ researchers by 2022

• to be a single entity working across several sites

DRI structure: hub and centres

• ~40% research activity at hub, remainder at 4-6 centres• Centres will lever local resources

DRI structure: integrating care research

v

• The DRI care research centre will be part of a network

Building the hub and centres

Foundation

Core

Growth

Year 3Flexible funding to

fill gaps and provide

partnerships

Year 0/1: Initial funding to

PIs already at site

Year 1 Recruitment of

core programmes (Profs /Fellows)

NIHR TRC-D

Feeding the drugs and diagnostics pipeline

ARUK Drug Discovery Alliance

Dementia Discovery Fund

Collaboration: JPND/COENIndustry: IMI

Policy: GAAD/OECD/WHO

A connected UK research landscape

Institutes• FCI• LMB• Farr

International connectivity

Connecting with other disciplines and

discovery scienceIndustry:

biopharma/digital

NeuroMAP

DRI

MRC Dementias

Platform UK