Cambridgeshire charity Alzheimer's Research UK unveils 100m dementia funding package – including new stem cell …

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Friday 20 Jun 2014 3:49 AM

Written byADAM LUKE

A Cambridgeshire-based charity has pledged 100 million for dementia research on a day when world health leaders gathered in London to discuss investment into the condition.

Great Abingtons Alzheimers Research UK has devised a new five-year campaign called Defeat Dementia which aims to grow the research field and accelerate progress towards new treatments and preventions.

The announcement coincides with a London summit, called the Global Dementia Legacy Event, hosted by Prime Minister David Cameron six months after a G8 summit in the city on the topic, when members set a target of finding a cure or treatment by 2025.

The charitys campaign is the largest ever UK charity commitment to dementia research and will see 100 million spent on diagnosis, prevention and treatment initiatives relating to Alzheimers and other dementias.

There will be a new 2 million stem cell research centre a collaboration between researchers at Cambridge Universitys Gurdon Institute and University College London (UCL) to understand the causes of Alzheimers and screen potential new treatments, along with a network of Drug Discovery Institutes housed in academic centres in the UK and beyond.

A 20 million Global Clinical Development Fund is also being set up to support phase I and II clinical trials.

Dr Rick Livesey, who works at the Gurdon Institute and uses stem cell techniques to better understand Alzheimers, said the Alzheimers Research UK Stem Cell Research Centre will take skin cells donated by people with Alzheimers and turning them into working nerve cells in the laboratory for further study.

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Cambridgeshire charity Alzheimer's Research UK unveils 100m dementia funding package - including new stem cell ...