Alzheimer's Research UK is the United Kingdom's leading dementia research charity, founded in 1992 as the Alzheimer’s Research Trust.
In February 2011 Alzheimer's Research Trust renamed as the Alzheimer's Research UK. It is dedicated to funding scientific studies to find ways to treat, cure or prevent Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, Lewy Body disease and fronto-temporal dementia.
Alzheimer's Research UK currently funds 127 research projects across the UK and has committed nearly £40million to dementia research.
Alzheimer's Research UK is a member of the Association of Medical Research Charities.
Alzheimer's Research UK does not receive any government funding and instead relies on donations from individuals, companies and charitable trusts, money raised by individuals and gifts left in people's Wills to fund dementia research.
The charity was founded by four members of the public as a result of their deep concerns at the lack of funding for Alzheimer's research.[1]
In 1998, the Trust awarded its first first major grant of £500,000 to a team led by distinguished scientist Dr Michel Goedert in Cambridge. The charity now funds over 100 grants all over the UK at a cost of more than £11 million.[1]
In March 2008, author Terry Pratchett, who has the disease, donated one million US dollars to the trust.[2]
In 2009 Alzheimer’s Research Trust scientists discovered two new genes related to Alzheimer’s. Over 16,000 people took part in this huge study. The findings were reported around the world and hailed by TIME magazine as one of the most important medical discoveries of the year.
In February 2010, the Alzheimer's Research Trust released the Dementia 2010 report, revealing new evidence of the prevalence, economic cost and research funding for dementia and other major conditions. [1][2]
In 2010 a University of Oxford project funded by the Alzheimer’s Research Trust found that daily tablets of B vitamins can halve the rate of brain shrinkage in elderly people with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). The clinical trial was the largest to study the effect of B vitamins on MCI and one of the first disease-modifying trials in the Alzheimer’s field to show positive results in people.