A TEAM of researchers who believe they can help restore lost memories in patients with Alzheimer's disease is relocating to Scotland.
The group, who expect to transform the way drug companies develop treatments for dementia in the next five years, are setting up at Glasgow University.
Led by Professor Andrew Tobin, the eight-strong research team are looking at creating drugs which work on proteins in the brain to restore memory. They also hope their discoveries will eventually help stop conditions such as Alzheimer's progressing.
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The team are bringing with them a new £4.2m grant which will allow them to hire another six staff to work on the same projects in pioneering laboratories around the world.
Professor Tobin said: “I am very excited to bring my research group to the University of Glasgow. The world leading researchers here provide the ideal environment to perform ground-breaking research aimed at transforming how we treat human disease.
“The collaborative award from Wellcome allows my group to work with the very best researchers from across the world, to work out how we can design better drugs to treat AD.”
Read more: Brain implant aims to reverse Alzheimer's memory loss
The researchers, who are currently based in Leicester, will move to Glasgow University in September.
Their £4.2m Wellcome Collaborative Award will fund work they are carrying out in collaboration with researchers at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. It will focus on proteins in the brain called receptors, which are involved in receiving the messages that result in us "laying down" and retrieving memories. In Alzheimer's disease this process is destroyed, leading to memory loss. By designing drugs that target specific receptor proteins called muscarinic receptors, the team believe that they can restore memory loss in diseases such as AD.
Professor Tobin said: “By working with my colleagues in Australia and across the world together with the pharmaceutical company Lilly, we hope that we can make a significant contribution to the development of new drugs to treat the symptoms of AD."
Read more: Brain implant aims to reverse Alzheimer's memory loss
Professor Dame Anna Dominiczak, head of the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences where Professor Tobin will be based, said: “I am delighted to be welcoming Professor Tobin and his highly-esteemed team to the University. I am thrilled that they have chosen Glasgow to continue their ground-breaking research.
“I’m sure I speak for the whole team in the College, as well as the Institute of Molecular, Cell and Systems Biology when I say we look forward to working with Professor Tobin and to the many exciting achievements to come from him and his team.”
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