LONDON — The Dementia Consortium awarded £305,000 of funding to a project identifying new therapeutics for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Frontotemporal Lobar degeneration (FTLD) on September 14. A team at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) in Trieste, Italy will join forces with London-based MRC Technology to take on the project, with funding provided by Alzheimer’s Research UK. 

  Whilst people with ALS (also known as motor neurone disease or Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and FTLD, the most common cause of dementia in people under the age of 50, experience different symptoms, both diseases are associated with the same biological processes. Both consist of the accumulation of “protein clumps”, which can disrupt vital nerve cell communication, and can eventually lead to nerve cell death. Unfortunately, at the current moment in time, no treatments exist to halt the spread of damage in these diseases. 

  MRC Technology and the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Trieste have set out to tackle this lack of treatments. 

  The Dementia Consortium is a unique £3m drug discovery collaboration between Alzheimer’s Research UK, MRC Technology and the pharmaceutical companies Eisai and Lilly. 

  Alzheimer’s Research UK is the UK’s leading charity specialising in seeking preventions, treatments, and ultimately a cure for dementia. It is currently supporting dementia-related research projects that are worth over £26 million in some of the top universities in the United Kingdom.