October 2014
The Alzheimer’s Research UK Stem
Cell Research Centre
A progress report for The Alborada Trust
Alzheimer’s Research UK
The UK’s leading dementia research charity Executive Summary
In recognition of The Alborada Trust’s exceptional commitment to help establish The
Alzheimer’s Research UK Stem Cell Research Centre at the University of Cambridge, we
are pleased to present a progress report on the work that Dr Rick Livesey and his team at
the Centre have made over the last six months.
Defeating Dementia with The Alborada Trust
Thanks to The Alborada Trust and our other generous supporters, Alzheimer’s Research UK
has made great progress in the battle to defeat dementia. Your support has enabled us to
commit £50m to over 400 projects since 1998, making us the second largest charity funder
of dementia research in the world.
Such philanthropic investment has helped us shape the current understanding of dementia,
contributing to the discovery of 21 of the 22 known risk genes for late-onset Alzheimer’s
disease and opening new avenues for targeted treatment. With your help, we are in now in a
position to build upon these successes.
In June 2014, David Cameron helped launch our new five-year, £100m Defeat Dementia
campaign. The first of its kind in dementia research, it will deliver innovation from bench to
bedside, focussing on bringing patient benefit as quickly as possible. The campaign will
cover all aspects of dementia research, from fundamental science such as Dr Livesey’s
work, to drug discovery and clinical trials.
Defeat Dementia’s components of People and Partnerships, Innovation and Translation
span the journey from fundamental discovery to patient benefit. Each has specific, costed
activities to achieve its goals.
We have been encouraged and enabled to launch this challenging campaign thanks to
supporters like The Alborada Trust. We are extremely grateful for your generous support and
hope that you will continue to partner with us throughout our campaign to defeat dementia.
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“Every day we grow closer to our goal of defeating dementia. A breakthrough
in treatments for Alzheimer’s is desperately needed and I am more convinced
than ever before that this is becoming increasingly likely in the next 5 years.”
Dr Eric Karran, Director of Research at Alzheimer’s Research UK
Alzheimer’s Research UK Stem Cell Research
Centre
Project Background
The Alzheimer’s Research UK Stem Cell Research Centre was established at the University
of Cambridge in May 2014 with the generous support of The Alborada Trust. Dr Rick Livesey
of the University’s Gurdon Institute was appointed to lead it, working in collaboration with
Professor John Hardy of University College London. The ultimate aim of the Centre is to
identify potential new drug treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia
by developing and using stem cell models of disease progression.
Project Progress
Dr Livesey reports that one of his key goals in creating the Centre has been the recruitment
of excellent scientists. He is delighted to have appointed Dr Philip Brownjohn from the
University of Otago, New Zealand, and Dr Francesco Paonessa from the Italian Institute of
Technology, Genoa, to lead specific aspects of the Centre’s research programme. One
additional researcher has also been appointed on a short-term contract to assist in the
development of the Centre.
The Centre has also created a technical team to manage the core facility for stem cell
reprogramming and production. This facility is essential to undertake one of the Centre’s
core activities, which is the large-scale reprogramming of stem cells taken from a group of
25 people with late onset, sporadic Alzheimer’s disease. It will also provide the capacity for
making specific alterations to individual genes in stem cell models, known as genome
engineering. The team comprises three technical staff, combining funding from the Centre
with that from other sources (Wellcome Trust and the European Union).
Dr Livesey and his team have already made significant progress in our understanding of how
Alzheimer’s disease starts in the inherited, familial form of the disease. Building on previous
work, they have discovered a novel distinction between two different forms of familial
Alzheimer’s disease. That discovery has also helped in the identification of a new pathway in
nerve cells leading from the start of the disease to its progression. The team are now
working hard to understand that pathway in more detail.
Project plans
Dr Livesey plans the following next steps in the Centre’s work:
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the generation of stem cell models of sporadic Alzheimer’s disease from the cohort of
25 individuals known to have inherited the disease (accessed via the Institute of
Neurology, UCL);
mechanistic studies of the novel cellular pathway identified in familial Alzheimer’s
disease;
studies of the functions of changes in specific genes associated with increased risk of
Alzheimer’s disease, using stem cell models of familial Alzheimer’s disease.
The Future
Alzheimer’s Research UK is doing more than any other charity to find new ways to prevent
and treat the diseases that cause dementia.
We believe that our ambitious new campaign, Defeat Dementia, will effect a step-change in
dementia research and we fully support the G8 commitment to find a disease-modifying
treatment by 2025. If we achieve this, the impact will be far-reaching and transformational for
both people with dementia and their families, and the economy and society as a whole.
Thank You
Dr Livesey’s work is a crucial part of our battle to defeat dementia and it is only made
possible thanks to the generosity of The Alborada Trust. On behalf of everyone affected by
dementia, thank you so much.
Ian Wilson, Director of Fundraising, on 01223 824540 or at
[email protected]
Registered charity no. 1077089 and SC042474
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“As numbers living with
dementia spiral towards one
million, research is our only
hope of an answer.”
Kevin Morgan,
Professor of Human Genomics &
Molecular Genetics,
University of Nottingham
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