Project Reference: TRG27-CNS-MM1

Project title: Multimodal biomarkers of neuroinflammation in frontotemporal dementia and other dementias: from blood to PET imaging

Project outline

Inflammation in the brain, caused mainly by the activation of immune cells called microglia, is now recognised as an important factor that speeds up decline in frontotemporal dementia (FTD), Alzheimer's disease, and related conditions. This project will combine two complementary approaches to studying this inflammation in FTD and related conditions: measuring biomarkers in blood and spinal fluid, and using brain scans (PET imaging) to see inflammation directly in the living brain. Together, these methods will help build a fuller picture of how inflammation contributes to the onset, progression, and varied symptoms of these diseases.

Using data-driven methods, the project will identify patterns of inflammation in the blood that distinguish patients from healthy people and relate to how severe someone's symptoms are. These patterns will also be examined across people from different ethnic and social backgrounds, and tested to see whether they can help predict how a person's disease might progress. The analysis will use both local patient data and larger datasets shared across multiple research centres, allowing the findings to be checked and confirmed in different groups of people. The lab also uses PET brain scans to measure and map inflammation directly in the brains of people with FTD and related conditions. These scan results will be compared with other measures of brain damage, underlying disease processes, and how patients' symptoms change over time, including how inflammation itself changes. The project aims to identify inflammation profiles to predict outcomes, group patients for treatment, and design future clinical trials of anti-inflammatory drugs for FTD.

The exact focus of the project will be shaped together with the student, based on their particular interests and background.

Principal Supervisor

Dr Maura Malpetti

Email address: mm2243@medschl.cam.ac.uk

Department / Partner Institute: Clinical Neurosciences

Website: https://www.ukdri.ac.uk/labs/malpetti-lab

BBSRC strategic theme

Bioscience for an integrated understanding of health