Cambridge Conversations: The Dementia Journey - New advances, insights and possibilities

Cambridge Conversations: The Dementia Journey - New advances, insights and possibilities

Cambridge Conversations: The Dementia Journey - New advances, insights and possibilities

event Thursday, July 14, 2022 schedule 6.30pm - 7.20pm BST
event Thursday, July 14, 2022 schedule 6.30pm - 7.20pm BST
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Origianl image by Milad Fakurian

The Dementia Journey - New advances, insights and possibilities
Open to: 
Alumni and guests

One in three of us is destined for dementia, bringing huge heartbreak for families and costs to the NHS and the economy. Yet we are at a tipping-point in dementia research, with advances in understanding different dementias leading to many potential treatments ready for clinical trials. The challenges remain substantial, however: technologically, ethically, and medically. 

In this conversation, three leading Cambridge scientists discuss the pathway to a cure for dementia. Their experience brings together clinical, academic and industry experience with a shared vision of collaborative cross-disciplinary research to address key issues: What does it mean to diagnose someone, when no two people are the same in genetics, life experience, background, or symptoms? How can we harness Big Data and Artificial Intelligence while protecting individual privacy and diversity? And what policy and political changes do we need to accelerate diagnosis, treatment and prevention? 

 

Speakers

Professor Ed Bullmore FRCP, FRCPsych, FMedSci

Professor Ed Bullmore

Professor Ed Bullmore is the Director at the Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre. Ed trained in clinical medicine at the University of Oxford and St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, then worked as a Lecturer in Medicine at the University of Hong Kong. He undertook specialist clinical training in psychiatry at St George’s Hospital and then the Bethlem Royal & Maudsley Hospital, both in London. His research career started in the early 1990s as a Wellcome Trust (Advanced) Research Fellow. Since moving to Cambridge as Professor of Psychiatry in 1999, his interest in human brain function and structure has increasingly focused on complex brain networks identified in MRI and other brain scanning data. Ed is Clinical Director of the Wellcome Trust/MRC funded Behavioural & Clinical Neuroscience Institute, and Co-Chair of Cambridge Neuroscience. He is also an honorary Consultant Psychiatrist and Director of R&D in Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Foundation NHS Trust.

Professor Zoe Kourtzi

Professor Zoe Kourtzi

Zoe Kourtzi is Professor of Computational Cognitive Neuroscience in Cambridge's Department of Psychology. Her work has translational impact in the early diagnosis and design of personalised interventions in brain and mental health disorders. She received her PhD from Rutgers University and was postdoctoral fellow at MIT and Harvard University. She was a Senior Research Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics and then a Chair in Brain Imaging at the University of Birmingham. Zoe moved to the University of Cambridge in 2013; she is the Cambridge University Lead at the Alan Turing Institute, a Royal Society Industry Fellow and a fellow of Downing College.

Dr Maura Malpetti (Sidney Sussex 2017, Clinical Neurosciences)

Dr Maura Malpetti

Dr Maura Malpetti is a Race Against Dementia Alzheimer’s Research UK fellow at the Cambridge Centre for Frontotemporal Dementia and Related disorders. She received a BSc in Psychology and MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience from Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan, before obtaining a PhD in Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge. She is now a postdoctoral researcher in Professor James Rowe’s lab. Maura is interested in the study of neuropathology, biomarkers and clinical features of neurodegenerative diseases, with a special interest in frontotemporal lobar degeneration and Alzheimer's disease. Her work focusses on multimodal brain imaging techniques integrated with fluid markers, post-mortem validation, and prognostic modelling approaches in dementia.

Professor James Rowe (Downing College 1988, Natural Sciences)

Professor James Rowe

Professor James Rowe is Director of the Cambridge Centre for Frontotemporal Dementia and Related Disorders. His initial training in Medical Sciences and Experimental Psychology began at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, undertaking a PhD at the Wellcome Department of Cognitive Neurology. Following this, he trained full-time as a clinical specialist while continuing research in neurology. In 2015 he was appointed as Professor of Cognitive Neurology at the University of Cambridge, and affiliated Professor of Clinical Neuroscience at the University of Copenhagen. James is an active consultant neurologist, leading clinics for patients with early and frontotemporal dementias, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, and other ‘tauopathies’. He is also a consultant in the Cambridge Memory Clinic. 

Booking information

Webinar: Thursday 14 July, 6:30pm to 7:20pm BST

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