Southampton professor joins international Alzheimer’s research group

A University of Southampton professor is part of a new international research network aiming to better understand how the brain gets rid of waste, and its link to Alzheimer’s Disease.

Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) is the main cause of hemorrhagic stroke, an important contributor to cognitive decline in older individuals, and a common cause of Alzheimer’s disease. It occurs when toxic waste builds up in the walls of the brain and is unable to be cleared.

The new research network, which is funded by an $8 million grant from the Leducq Foundation, will use a translational approach to study brain waste clearance in CAA.

Professor Roxana Carare , of the Faculty of Medicine and leads the Carare Research Group , will be one of the Principal Investigators and join other researchers from countries such as America, Germany, France and Holland.

The network’s overarching aims are to establish a data-driven, integrated multi-scale understanding of perivascular brain clearance in health and CAA, translate experimental findings from rodent models to the human brain, and identify relevant driving forces to be tested in future clinical trials to enhance brain clearance.

Professor Carare said: “With the rising aging population, CAA is increasing, and effective disease-modifying interventions are virtually non-existent at the moment. I am proud to be part of this new, international group of exception scientists in their fields. Understanding the exact arrangement and function of all elements in the system for eliminating waste from the brain will bring us a step closer to the design of efficient therapies for Alzheimer’s Disease and offer some hope to the people who experience this distressing disease, and their families.”