GRANTS. Ten Gothenburg researchers are to receive a total of SEK 4,250,000 in funding from Alzheimerfonden. Alzheimerfonden (the Alzheimer’s Foundation) supports projects aimed at stopping the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, diagnosing dementia illnesses at an early stage, and at developing treatment and rehabilitation methods.
Of those receiving the grants, it is Gothenburg-based researcher Professor Kaj Blennow who has been awarded most funding. His grant amounts to SEK 1,400,000, for a project aimed at researching and understanding why
nerve cell synapses get damaged during Alzheimer’s disease, and what significance this has for the development of the disease and the symptoms observed.
“This grant will enable us to press ahead with our project, as we try to understand how synapse protein neurogranin, and also other proteins, such as tau – which play an important role in disease processes during Alzheimer’s – are involved in the damage to the synapses,” says Kaj Blennow.
Professor Ingmar Skoog has been awarded SEK 700,000 for his research, which builds on the H70 population studies in Gothenburg. Among other things, his team of researchers will be studying people who have Alzheimer’s disease based on the findings of a magnetic camera or on their samples of spinal fluid, and yet are still showing no symptoms of the disease.
“Thanks to the H70 population studies in Gothenburg, we now have a unique opportunity to study the disease process during Alzheimer’s disease at its earliest stage, which may prove of significance for prevention, early treatment and early diagnosis. We would also like to research whether there are early signs that markers of Alzheimer’s disease affect parts of the bodies other than the brain. The grant will give young researching doctors the chance to acquire more in-depth knowledge in these areas,” says Ingmar Skoog.
