Lunch Hour Lecture | The future of dementia research

About the lecture:

World Alzheimer’s Month: The future of dementia research

What if we could watch dementia unfold in a dish, and stop it before it starts? To mark Alzheimer's Awareness Month, Professor Selina Wray explores how cutting-edge stem cell models are helping us understand the earliest changes in the brain that lead to Alzheimer’s and other dementias. Drawing on her pioneering work at UCL, she will reveal how patient-derived neurons are unlocking new insights into disease mechanisms and paving the way for personalised treatments. Professor Wray will also look to the future of dementia research and speak to the power of big data, AI and international collaborations in driving innovation and helping us to tackle the global challenge of dementia.

UCL's popular public Lunch Hour Lecture series has been running at UCL since 1942, and showcases the exceptional research work being undertaken across UCL. Lectures are free and open to all and since 2020 have been held online.

About the speaker:

Professor Selina Wray is Professor of Molecular Neuroscience in the Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology. Her research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia using patient-derived stem cell models. Her work sheds light on the earliest changes in the brain, which enhances our understanding of disease mechanisms, and aiding in the development of novel therapeutics. Professor Wray is also a passionate advocate for public engagement, and has received multiple awards for her research and outreach, including the ARUK David Hague Early Career Investigator of the Year and The Suffrage Science Award for Life Sciences.

About the chair:

Professor Fiona Ducotterd is a neuroscientist, strategic alliance and business development expert with global drug discovery and development experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry prior to joining the UDDI with Merck, Sharp and Dohme, GSK, Eisai and Vertex in the UK, China, Japan and the USA, and an external consultant/scientific advisor to a wealth of global biotechnology clients. Fiona relocated from Boston, USA to London to join the UDDI in November 2022 to translate cutting edge academic research into drug discovery programs. Fiona has spent most of her career working on Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases in industry after being motivated by her personal experience of watching her Granny Mac slowly fade away with the disease. Fiona and her team are focused on making new medicines for patients and she’s excited by the continuously emerging understanding of disease mechanisms and development of biomarkers that will accelerate the translational research path to making transformative medicines.