UCL awarded £5.1m to unlock neurodegenerative secrets with AI

Building upon a long-standing philanthropic relationship between UCL and the Trust, the award will establish a world-leading AI-centred brain tissue resource known as the Reta Lila Weston platform for Biomarker Research and Innovation in Neurodegeneration (Reta Lila Weston BRAIN). 

This new platform will use novel machine learning techniques to analyse clinical, genetic, pathological and multi-omic information (i.e. multiple layers of biological data) from 2,500 human brain and spinal cord tissue samples donated to the Queen Square Brain Bank for Neurological Disorders (QSBB), including complex datasets from brains with neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. The construction of the new AI platform is a collaboration between the QSBB and AI researchers in UCL Computer Science and the UCL Hawkes Institute.

This collection will underpin an AI resource unique in both scope and depth; it will identify key molecules and pathways to predict disease onset, severity and progression, isolate biomarkers that will empower clinical trials, and highlight new disease mechanisms for the development of novel treatments. 

Open access to the algorithm will enable researchers in all parts of the world to analyse the UCL dataset as well as input their own data and observe how it alters their predictions. The platform will then learn from these external inputs and further refine its predictive power. 

Professor Tom Warner, Chair of Clinical Neurology and Director of the Reta Lila Weston Institute at UCL, said: “AI will revolutionise the way we study neurodegenerative conditions.

“With the world’s largest brain tissue collection and world-leading clinical and neuroscience experts, UCL is in a genuinely unparalleled position to harness this transformative technology.

“Thanks to the Reta Lila Weston Trust for Medical Research, we will now turn possibility into reality and rapidly accelerate our understanding of neurodegenerative disease mechanisms.”

Chairman of the Reta Lila Weston Trust for Medical Research, Tamara Rebanks, said: “This donation will unlock the full potential of the unique resources of the Queen’s Square Brain Bank, enabling researchers worldwide to apply advanced AI techniques to explore complex genetic and clinical data.

“Our Board is tremendously excited at the potential discoveries that lie ahead and most importantly, the hope this brings to patients and families affected by these devastating diseases.”

After Reta Lila Weston BRAIN completes an initial three-year development phase, it will have the capacity to investigate rarer neurodegenerative conditions including multiple system atrophy, progressive supranuclear palsy, frontotemporal dementias and motor neuron disease.

These insights have the potential to catalyse step-changes in diagnosis, prevention and treatment of neurological conditions which – taken together – comprise the leading cause of death and disability globally. 

Further to funding the Reta Lila Weston BRAIN platform, the new gift will also continue to support the Reta Lila Weston Institute of Neurological Studies at UCL, which was created in 1968 via a bequest from the Trust.

In collaboration with the Queen Square Brain Bank for Neurological Disorders, the Institute seeks to further scientific knowledge about a range of neurodegenerative conditions, with a particular focus on parkinsonian disorders and dementia.

Its contribution – and that of the wider UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology – has been critical to significant advances taking place across the neuroscience landscape, with recent developments, such as the landmark regulatory approval of the first disease-modifying therapies for dementia.

UCL President & Provost, Dr Michael Spence, added: “For more than 50 years, UCL has worked hand-in-hand with the Reta Lila Weston Trust for Medical Research to make great strides in our understanding of intractable diseases.

“We are delighted to have their continued confidence as we seize this once-in-a-century opportunity to save and change the lives of patients and their loved ones.”

Links

• UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology  
• UCL Reta Lila Weston Institute of Neurological Studies 
• UCL Queen Square Brain Bank for Neurological Disorders 
• UCL Brain Sciences
• UCL Hawkes Institute
• UCL Computer Science
• UCL Faculty of Engineering
• UCL Giving – Neuroscience 

Image

• Credit: James Tye

Media contact 

Poppy Tombs

E: p.tombs [at] ucl.ac.uk