Pawel, an imaging scientist, is currently on tour across the country to visit DPUK\u2019s seven-site network of PET-MR scanners with his \u2018phantoms\u2019 in tow. The phantoms are an intriguing and vital technical step in making sure that the scanners are set up for the first participants in multicentre clinical studies for dementia.
A branch of artificial intelligence (AI) which is based on training computers to learn patterns has the ability to transform our understanding of dementia. Professor David Llewellyn co-led the first DPUK datathon and now we're looking forward to our first virtual DPUK datathon.
Although the more commonly known \u2018hackathon\u2019 has been used to address societal-level problems from homelessness to corruption, we think that it\u2019s only recently that the data science community is turning its attention to dementia. The DPUK datathon series might well be one of the first for the field in fact. Chris, DPUK\u2019s Data Project Manager, and Sarah, DPUK\u2019s Senior Data Manager, take us through the three key ingredients for a successful datathon.
Ruby recently started as a postdoctoral researcher in DPUK. Alongside pursuing her research in factors affecting mental health and wellbeing, she contributes her valuable experience of working with cohort data to the developers working on the Data Portal upgrades.
Swansea, the hub of the UK\u2019s world leading informatics expertise, is where you\u2019ll hear the hum of the hundreds of UKSeRP servers that are the home to the DPUK Data Portal. The virtual space of the Data Portal is, in reality, run from Swansea University\u2019s state-of-the-art Data Science Building overlooking the Bristol Channel. Here, Mark Newbury is one of the people you\u2019re very likely to be regularly in touch with. Mark\u2019s on hand to help bring researchers to data, because, as all researchers know, it\u2019s not quite as simple as a click of a button, just yet.
Catherine Calvin, an analyst at Dementias Platform UK (DPUK), investigates population study data of adults in midlife and older, to understand factors that relate to the risk of developing dementia in later life. In a recent paper published in Nature\u2019s Scientific Reports, Catherine demonstrates that genetic susceptibility to developing obesity \u2013 a contributing risk factor for dementia \u2013 may be modified by lifestyle habits.
Bryan spends a lot of time in a lab, nose down a microscope just like many of his colleagues from university. But the special cells he\u2019s working with put him right at the frontier of cell-based studies in dementia. He\u2019s working with patient-specific stem cells which will enable him to compare the experimental outcomes he\u2019s observing with symptoms which were recorded in the clinics.
Ivan Koychev, Great Minds lead and Clinical Scientist at Dementias Platform UK (DPUK), describes an exciting new chapter in dementia research which, with the support of generous new members of Great Minds, promises to accelerate the development of innovative new treatments.
\u2018I\u2019d thought it was all doom and gloom for dementia research,\u2019 said Marianne. \u2018But I\u2019d not understood that sometimes this is because testing on volunteers only takes place too late.\u2019 DPUK brought together study participant Marianne Talbot and old-age psychiatrist Dr Ivan Koychev to discuss the bright prospects cohort studies offer dementia research.
Five members of the public, all committed to the fight against dementia, recently joined us round the table in London. They shared with us their perspectives of what is critical for volunteers to know before joining research studies. We discovered that clear communication around data security and the volunteer\u2019s control over their contribution is vital to build trust.
As a data curation research assistant for DPUK, Josh is chipping away at the coalface of DPUK\u2019s mission to bring cohort data together into a powerful resource for researchers. In his blog he allows us an insight into a key job that makes it possible for researchers to compare data across different cohorts in the Data Portal.
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