Showing articles associated with John Gallacher
John Gallacher is Professor of Cognitive Health at Oxford University and Director of Dementias Platform UK (DPUK), an MRC-funded public-private partnership focused on accelerating research into the early detection and treatment of dementia. With a new diagnosis every three seconds and more than 50 million cases globally, dementia is one of the biggest public health challenges facing science and governments in the 21st century.
What is your main area(s) of interest/expertise?
I am committed to life-affirming science. As an epidemiologist and psychologist I focus on improving population brain health. This includes mental as well as cognitive wellbeing. A particular interest is how to engage the entire population in brain health research. This is not necessarily difficult, but it does require new ways of thinking and working by both scientists and the public.
What are you working on right now?
As DPUK Director, my main focus is bridging the gap between discovery science and translation into novel therapies for dementia. DPUK does this by developing multi-disciplinary collaborative research networks. These bring together academic and industry scientists with expertise in population studies, brain-imaging, genetics, stem-cells, and digital platforms to conduct studies on the inflammatory, vascular and synaptic pathways underlying dementia. Our Data Portal provides secure global access to some of the world’s best population research data. Our Trials Delivery Framework enables targeted trials recruitment so that the right person can recruited to the right trial. Our Experimental Medicine Incubator specialises in conducting the human studies that are necessary to translate discovery science into new treatments.
Why is Oxford a good place to work in this field of research?
As a world leading centre for population studies, brain imaging, genetics, stem-cell research, and digital science, Oxford is the natural place to host DPUK; offering global reach. In addition, the Department of Psychiatry provides a stimulating and enthusiastic community in which to develop the new ideas and approaches that are essential if we are to defeat dementia.
Find out more about John Gallacher: https://www.psych.ox.ac.uk/team/john-gallacher
