New £250m UK Dementia Research Institute to be led from UCL

UCL has been selected as the 'hub' of the new £250m UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI), to be led by Professor Bart De Strooper, current leader of the Laboratory for the Research of Neurodegenerative Diseases at the University of Leuven and scientific director at VIB (Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie) in Belgium. The UK DRI is a joint £250m investment into dementia research led by the Medical Research Council (MRC) alongside founding charity partners Alzheimer's Society and Alzheimer's Research UK. The Institute will be catalytic in the UK's research efforts to diagnose, treat, care for and prevent dementias, a group of neurodegenerative disorders which include Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's disease and vascular dementia. It will transform dementias research by connecting researchers working across different disciplines, including those outside of the dementias field, and attracting leading experts from around the UK and the world. Professor De Strooper was chosen as the Director of the UK DRI after a competitive international search led by the MRC. People living with dementia and carers from the founding charity networks met the final candidates to contribute their views into the decision making process. The Institute will ultimately operate across a number of UK locations, with its 'Hub' to be based at UCL, which was chosen through a competitive peer-review process.