Experts pool knowledge in bid to cure Alzheimer’s

MEDICAL experts from all over the globe are to pool their research skills in a bid to develop treatments and cures for Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.

The EU is giving €2 million towards the collaboration that includes 24 countries, including Ireland. European scientists are already involved in considerable work in the area and over the past few years the EU grant aided more than 60 projects to the tune of €200 million.

More than seven million people in the EU suffer from Alzheimer’s, costing health services €72 billion. Numbers are expected to increase sharply over the next two decades, when a quarter of the population will be over 65 years of age.

Much of the current research is on treatment and may be overlapping. To tackle this and to ensure research is more focused, the EU is helping scientists and national authorities to coordinate and collaborate across Europe.

The initiative comes under the portfolio of Research, Innovation and Science Commissioner, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, who said that the goal of the initiative is to increase the understanding of the causes of these diseases and facilitate early diagnosis and the development of new treatments.

Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn said: “This is an example of the new approach by the EU to tackle health-related, social, technological and environmental grand challenges that face all our citizens.

“As a result the best European medical researchers will be working together and pooling resources to help the millions of people who suffer from Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.”

A scientific advisory board of 15 top neurodegenerative disease scientists met in Stockholm for the first time to begin work on advising an the research agenda to be followed.

Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn also announced €21m for two new research projects on breast and kidney cancer, being carried out by the international cancer genome consortium.