About us
Dementia is one of our greatest global health challenges, and it is growing rapidly.
The number of people in the UK living with dementia is projected to increase to 1.6 million by 2040, with global cases set to triple to 153 million by 2050. The economic and personal cost of these figures is staggering.
Although a handful of drugs that modestly slow disease progression have emerged in the last few years, we still do not have a single treatment that can prevent the disease or stop dementia progressing. In part, this is because dementia research has been chronically underfunded globally, which has negatively impacted progress.
-
UK DRI at Cardiff showcase event, May 2023
-
UK DRI at Cardiff showcase event, May 2023
-
Early Career Researchers talking about their science at UK DRI at Cardiff showcase event, May 2023
-
Soapbox science talks at UK DRI at Cardiff Showcase Event, May 2023
-
Soapbox science talks at UK DRI at Cardiff Showcase Event, May 2023
-
Guests viewing sample experiments down the microscope
-
Prof Julie Williams opens the UK DRI at Cardiff Showcase Event
-
Prof Steven Riley, Pro-Vice Chancellor, College of Biomedical and Life Sciences, addresses the audience
-
Laboratory tour of the UK DRI Lab at Cardiff
The UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI) was established to change this. Working across the UK, we are conducting discovery science to fill the knowledge gap in dementia. Our unique structure draws together the expertise of six great universities across the UK – and the diverse skills in their research teams – as well as attracting the best scientific talent from overseas. The resulting community is a highly multidisciplinary ecosystem of researchers, working together to answer fundamental questions about the brain.
Researchers at the UK DRI at Cardiff University are harnessing cutting-edge techniques to interrogate the genetic variations linked with neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease. Our new genetic discoveries direct and inform our research into disease processes and mechanisms. These, in turn, will help accelerate progress towards better disease detection and new treatments.
Our funders
The UK DRI was founded in 2017 by principal funder the Medical Research Council (MRC), alongside Alzheimer’s Research UK and Alzheimer’s Society, and was recently re-funded for a further five years.
