Dementia: Catching the memory thief

21 September 2016

It's over a hundred years since the first case of Alzheimer’s disease was diagnosed. Since then we’ve learned a great deal about the protein ‘tangles’ and ‘plaques’ that cause the disease. How close are we to having effective treatments – and could we even prevent dementia from occurring in the first place?

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Transmission electron microscopy image showing a molecular chaperone (the black dots) binding to thread-like amyloid-beta (Aβ42)

Molecular inhibitor breaks cycle that leads to Alzheimer’s

16 February 2015

A molecular chaperone has been found to inhibit a key stage in the development of Alzheimer’s disease and break the toxic chain reaction that leads to the death of brain cells, a new study shows. The research provides an effective basis for searching for candidate molecules that could be used to treat the condition.

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Night shot at Hay Festival

Cambridge heads for Hay

10 April 2014

A host of Cambridge academics, including Nobel Laureate Sir John Gurdon, will be speaking on subjects ranging from stem cell technology and Alzheimer’s to the future of North Korea and the history of conspiracy theories at this year’s Hay Festival.

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Marking Parkinson's

Physical sciences illuminate neurodegenerative diseases

28 May 2012

What do physicists, chemists, mathematicians and biologists have in common? One of the answers at Cambridge is a shared interest in unravelling the processes behind neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Motor Neurone Disease.

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