Roche and the Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC) have partnered to uncover new research to understand the structural changes of dementia.

Using cutting-edge imaging and machine learning (ML), researchers will analyse the brains of patients living with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

Dementia is a general term used for the impaired ability to remember, think or make decisions that interferes with day-to-day activities and affects 55 million people globally, according to Alzheimer’s Society.

Currently the most common form of dementia, AD is a progressive neurological disease that affects the part of the brain that controls thought, memory and language.

PD is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects the body’s nervous system. The main symptoms include shaking, slow movements and stiffness.

The study will use advanced MRI to understand the bigger structural changes in the brain that occur in PD and AD to changes at a microscopic level to help advance earlier detection of the diseases in a non-invasive way.

According to professor Derek Jones, school of psychology, director or CUBRIC, researchers will utilise the Siemen’s Connectom scanner and Siemens 7T MRI, as well as mathematical modelling and cutting-edge ML, “to investigate small and large changes in the brain of those with PD and AD”.

A new study led by researchers at University College London (UCL) and other collaborators has revealed that adults who experienced amblyopia as children are more likely to experience serious diseases in adulthood.

Published in eClinicalMedicine, the study was funded by the Medical Research Council, the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR), and the Ulverscroft Foundation.

Affecting up to four in 100 children, amblyopia, otherwise known as a ‘lazy eye,’ is a neurodevelopmental condition where the vision in one eye does not develop properly, caused by a breakdown in how the brain and eye work together.

Carried out alongside seven other collaborators, including King’s College London, the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre and Great Ormond Street Hospital, researchers analysed more than 126,000 people aged 40 to 69 years from the UK Biobank cohort who had an ocular examination.

Out of 3,238 patients who reported having amblyopia in childhood, 82.2% were found to have had persistently reduced vision in one eye as adults.

In addition, the findings showed that patients with childhood amblyopia had 29% higher odds of developing diabetes, a 25% increased risk of having hypertension and a 16% higher risk of having obesity, as well as an increased risk of heart attack.