A Cambridge-led consortium is one of only three teams that have been awarded a share of a £17 million grant from the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council (MRC) that should improve the understanding of neurodegenerative diseases.

Professor Peter St George-Hyslop (pictured), who works within the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research is the principle investigator for the Cambridge-led consortium, which focuses on Alzheimer's disease and related neurodegenerative disorders.

The aim of the research programme is to improve our understanding of what causes Alzheimer’s disease in a bid to improve early diagnosis and develop more effective therapies.

Sir Mark Walport, Director of the Wellcome Trust, says, "Neurodegenerative diseases cause a great deal of human suffering and place considerable burden on our health services. New advances in biomedical science, ranging from clinical through to molecular and genetic studies, make this an exceptionally timely moment to focus on better understanding what causes these conditions and ever earlier identification of their incipient onset."

A neurodegenerative disease is a condition in which cells of the brain and spinal cord are destroyed.

Cells do not readily repair and regenerate, so damage to them, especially damage which causes their death, can be a huge problem.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia; it is incurable and terminal.

More than 35 million people are affected by it worldwide, with many cases displaying similar symptoms, such as memory loss, gradually leading to the loss of bodily functions and ultimately death.

The cause and progression of the disease are not well understood, and no treatments to delay or halt the progression of the disease are currently available.

The research will also investigate motor neurone disease, frontotemporal dementia and Parkinson's disease.

The consortium also includes researchers from Bristol, as well as leading international groups from Canada and Germany.

The Wellcome Trust is the largest charity in the UK. It funds innovative biomedical research in the UK and internationally, and supports public debate about biomedical research and its impact on health and wellbeing.

The Medical Research Council supports the highest quality science and has helped improve the health of people across the UK for over 100 years. Investing in world-class scientists, the MRC has produced 29 Nobel Prize winners.

Their main focus is on making an impact and providing the finance and scientific expertise behind medical breakthroughs. These breakthroughs include: the first antibiotic penicillin; the structure of DNA; and the lethal link between smoking and cancer.

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