This study is looking at a brand new way of mapping the brain, and how it is affected by dementia.

How does it work?

GE180 is a special chemical devised by researchers to latch on to the proteins, called Amyloids, that cause inflammation of the brain for people with Alzheimer’s Disease.

The chemical then allows us to see and trace activity (tracer/ marker) within the brain, such as a build up that can damage nerve cells.

The volunteers involved will be given this tracer, and then undergo regular brain scans to gather information on how well it bonds with the proteins. This could help researchers develop much more accurate ways of diagnosing and measuring the effects of Alzheimer’s Disease and other dementias.

It could even help researchers measure how effective treatments are that directly affect this protein, and could possibly reduce the damage caused by dementia.

Get Involved

To see how effective GE180 is, researchers want to look at its effects on the brains of ten healthy ‘control’ volunteers, ten people with Mild Cognitive Impairment, and ten people who have Alzheimer’s Disease.

This will help in comparing results at all stages of the condition. Interested volunteers can see if they meet the study requirements by signing up for ‘Join dementia research’ – which you can do just by clicking on the right hand side of this page.

Let Us Know!

We love hearing from participants in ‘Join dementia research’ studies. What can you tell us about your experiences, and what would you tell people who might be thinking about joining?

E-mail us on comms.jdr@nihr.ac.uk, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more updates.