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UCL researchers receive £8.1 million ARIA funding for innovative brain research

21 January 2025

UCL researchers will receive £8.1m in funding to embark on cutting edge research to help overcome neurodegenerative diseases.

Dennis Chan and Gabriele Lignani

UCL researchers will receive £8.1m in funding to embark on cutting edge research to help overcome neurodegenerative diseases.

Researchers from UCL will lead two of the 18 projects announced on Monday as part of the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency’s (ARIA) £69m Precision Neurotechnologies programme.

Professor Gabriele Lignani, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, will lead an international team to develop new gene therapy for neuropsychiatric disorders. The project – which was awarded £7.7 million by ARIA –seeks to address challenges currently facing existing therapies for neuropsychiatric disorders such as epilepsy, schizophrenia and dementia.

Current treatments for these conditions aim to lessen the frequency and severity of episodic symptoms, usually through drugs that affect the entire brain, which can lead to significant side effects and reduced effectiveness over time.

Researchers will use a new generation of cell-state gene therapies to address the underlying neuronal circuit dysfunction that leads to these episodes. They will seek to correct abnormal excitability in closed loop, aiming for lasting disease modification with minimal side effects. With clinical translation as the long-term goal, they will use focused ultrasound to open the blood-brain barrier for minimally invasive delivery of viral vectors.

Professor Gabriele Lignani said: “Over 100 million people worldwide are affected by neuropsychiatric disorders. This project has the potential to transform patient therapy and change lives across the globe.”

Professor Dennis Chan, UCL Psychology and Language Sciences, will lead a team in the development of an ethical framework and toolkit for use in neurotechnology research.

The team – which was granted £400,000 by ARIA – believes that precision neurotechnologies can greatly improve how we manage brain disorders. However, they believe these technologies should be used within a system that prioritises ethical considerations. This system should also focus on the needs of people who have firsthand experience with these disorders and allow for continuous improvements to make sure it works well. Their project involves creating this system and a toolkit for future use of neurotechnologies. They will illustrate the need for this framework by using the preservation of cognition for dementia risk reduction as a test case.

Professor Dennis Chan said: “New technologies with the ability to interface directly with the brain have the potential to transform neurological practice. However, for people to obtain greatest benefit from such future therapies, it is crucial that they be used within novel healthcare systems designed with ethical considerations at their core and engineered in a way that meets the diverse needs of patients and clinicians. Our project will deliver the framework for these new systems.

The ARIA funding will support research groups across the UK over a period of four years. The Precision Neurotechnologies programme aims to deliver breakthroughs that could help to treat many of the most complex and devastating brain disorders affecting individuals and communities worldwide.

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