Brain Disease

Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer's disease is a degenerating disorder of the brain which affects the memory, thinking and behaviour of more than 15 million people worldwide.

There is currently no cure or preventive therapy available for Alzheimer's disease sufferers.

The Medical Foundation supports the following Alzheimer's disease research programs.

Professor Jürgen Götz

Professor Jürgen Götz and his research team aim to understand what causes the formation of insoluble protein deposits and neuronal cell death in Alzheimer's patients.

The brains of Alzheimer's disease patients are characterised by nerve cell loss, synapse loss, and the presence of insoluble protein deposits (plaques and tangles) which are a major focus of Alzheimer's research.

As the agents which cause this disease are likely to be shared by a whole range of neurodegenerative disorders, potential drugs targeting plagues or tangles might benefit a broader spectrum of disorders such as Parkinson's disease.

Professor Götz's research will assist in the development of safe treatment strategies of Alzheimer's disease and related disorders.

Professor Jillian Kril

Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, affecting more than 162,000 people over the age of 65 in Australia.

An important part of understanding what happens in the brain of Alzheimer's disease patients, comes from studying changes that occur in the brain during normal ageing. The Medical Foundation Program Grant to Associate Professor Jillian Kril, supported an important study which examined the hippocampus in patients with Alzheimer's disease to determine why neurons in this region die.

Additional grants from the Foundation have enabled Professor Kril to further her research in understanding the underlying cause of the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, and how it is differentiated from the clinically similar Dementia with Lewy Bodies (abnormal collections of protein which form inside nerve cells of the brain).