Here are some highlights from the last year. I can't include everything, but it reflects much of what DPUK stands for: collaboration, innovation, sharing, and enabling translational in-human research into dementia.
68,000 JOIN RESEARCH READY REGISTERS
Our research registers continue to recruit. The clinical studies register (n=58,000) has genotyping on 20,000, and Great Minds (n=9750) with serial phenotyping is currently recruiting to six studies. Members have been able to keep up to date with the value of the register at ‘Great Minds Live’ events in Newport and London.
33 SITE TRIALS DELIVERY NETWORK
The value of our Trials Delivery Framework for researchers grows with 33 sites across the UK joining this expanding network. We are delighted that this now includes Primary Care sites. Our network is working to standardise a core dataset, reduce screen failure rates, and reduce times to first in clinic.
EXPERIMENTAL MEDICINE INCUBATOR
Participants have attended study visits for Synaptic Health (SHINE) and Neuroimmunology studies (IMPRINT) whilst all three Vascular Health studies are progressing. Recruitment to the Deep and Frequent Phenotyping Study continues across 5 sites.
TRANSLATION 2024
Translation 2023 brought a creative mix of stakeholders together, featuring internationally leading academic and industry presenters including Prof. Jeff Cummings, Sir Simon Lovestone and Dame Kate Bingham. The conference focussed on big data, trials delivery, and biomarker development. You can now book for Translation 2024!
GROWTH IN DATA PORTAL USAGE
Use of our data portal increases year on year with over 1400 access requests from 1023 users in 48 countries. Growth areas have been neuroimaging and the development of community-specific data collections and hubs.
https://portal.dementiasplatform.uk/Reports/Overview
MND TRANSLATIONAL ACCELERATOR
This £6m investment by MRC and NIHR is aimed at accelerating the development of treatments for MND, and FTD. MNDAcc is part of a national drive leveraging the assets of DPUK and UK-DRI to translate new discoveries into treatments, providing infrastructure, facilities, and services for high quality in-human research.
PARTNERSHIP WITH KOREA BRAIN RESEARCH INSTITUTE
DPUK Director John Gallacher signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Professor Pann-Ghill Suh, President of the Korea Brain Research Institute, marking what promises to be a valuable relationship in future dementia studies and research.
NEUROIMAGING SYMPOSIUM
This symposium, organised by our Swansea University team, in partnership with the British Neurological Association. The event addressed Big Data in neuroimaging, challenges and solutions, clinical applications of neuroimaging, and the use of AI.
TBI REPORTER RESEARCH HUB ON DPUK DATA PORTAL
This new £9.5m MRC-funded research platform is designed to transform the way survivors of traumatic brain injury are diagnosed and treated. TBI is a leading cause of death and disability in people under 40 in the UK and can cause a range of serious and lifelong health issues for people who survive, including dementia. DPUK provides a bespoke informatics hub with end-to-end data management for TBI reporter.
COMMUTE: COMORBIDITY MECHANISMS UTILIZED IN HEALTHCARE
This £7.5m Horizon 2023 study is on the impacts of microbial infections on neurodegenerative diseases. For example, the impact of COVID on brain structure, memory and learning. The DPUK Data Portal supports integrated multi-modal analysis on the biopsychosocial determinants of these impacts.
COVID AND MENTAL HEALTH (CGMHC)
For this $3.6m NIH funded 27-member consortium led by Harvard, Oxford, and Sao Paolo, DPUK provides the informatics engine. This includes data curation and creating a bespoke consortium-specific analysis environment for 23 cohorts from the Americas, Europe, India, and South East Asia.
Launch of UK Nervous Tissue Network
In collaboration with Brains for Dementia Research, this innovative £1.9m MRC funded project is designed to bring multi-modal neurological tissue data into a single analytic environment. The DPUK Data Portal has provided a turn-key solution to this challenge.