Bridging the gap: biophysical models of human frontotemporal lobar degeneration

New treatments for dementia are urgently required, but they are held up by the knowledge gap about how damage to brain cells and brain networks leads to changes in thinking and behaviour in humans. Laboratory studies of animals give great detail, but cannot fully replicate the dementia affecting patients. My program bridges this gap. I build advanced computer models of the human brain based on knowledge of the brain's "wiring" and measurement of disease severity in individual patients with PET scanning. I use a type of brain scanner called magnetoencephalography to improve the computer models so that they match the reality of brain function. These "best" models are used to predict the problems caused by dementia, like apathy. I test this approach to the limit, using ultrahigh powered MRI and drug-treatments. This award focuses on frontotemporal dementia and progressive supranuclear palsy and develops methods to accelerate new dementia therapies.