Cambridge researchers take centre stage at leading dementia conference

Dr András Lakatos has been awarded, The David Hague Early Career Investigator of the Year Award for being the most outstanding early career researcher in the field of biomedical dementia research. The prize is worth £25,000 in research expenses, with an additional £1,500 personal prize.

Dr András Lakatos is a neurobiologist and consultant neurologist at the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, where he leads a research laboratory. After pausing his research activities to complete his full-time clinical specialist training in general medicine and neurology, Dr Lakatos obtained a junior university fellowship, and later, in 2017 received the Medical Research Council Clinician Scientist Fellowship Award.

Dr Lakatos’ research has contributed towards understanding the role of support cells in the vast network of nerve cells in the brain in health and disease. To do this in the lab he and his research group developed state-of-the-art techniques to study ‘mini-brains in a dish’.

He is currently leading research that aims to address knowledge gaps between genetic risk and pathways contributing to nerve cells loss in diseases including frontotemporal dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Dr András Lakatos, from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Clinical Neurosciences, said:

“I feel very privileged to receive this prestigious award, especially in light of the list of eminent colleagues who have received it before me. I take it as a recognition for my lab’s efforts over the years, and I have no doubt that this will fuel our research into neurodegenerative diseases.

“We currently don’t have very effective options for treating diseases like frontotemporal dementia or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This award is particularly gratifying as this research may be able to identify further potential drug targets and give people hope.”

Dr Negin Holland wins the Jean Corsan Prize, for the best published paper by a PhD student in the field.

In the study, Dr Holland who is also a clinician, looked at people with a build-up of tau, a culprit protein in several different diseases that cause the loss of nerve cells.

The research team at Cambridge recruited participants with progressive supranuclear palsy and corticobasal degeneration from the Cambridge Centre for Parkinson-Plus and Join Dementia Research, a service that provides opportunities to take part in dementia research studies.

Using brain scans, Dr Holland found that areas of the brain with higher numbers of connections between nerve cells, also have more build-up of tau, suggesting that the connections can help spread the disease. In patients with more severe disease this relationship is lost. Given the importance of nerve cell connections for memory and thinking, this work may inform the design of future clinical trials.

Dr Negin Holland, speaking about her findings as the winner of the 2022 Jean Corsan Prize, said:

“I was very excited and humbled by the news of being awarded the Jean Corsan Prize. As a clinician, I am faced with patients affected by dementia on a daily basis. I am fortunate to be based in a centre of excellence for dementia research and have the opportunity to advance our understanding of this devastating condition by a small step. I owe the success of the project to the expertise of and collaborations with many individuals and but importantly to our patient volunteers.”