Hosted on the DPUK Data Portal, the database highlights population and clinical cohorts, as well as clinical trials and research volunteer registries, each broken down by country, size, demographics, and the types and categories of data available (including lifestyle, cognition, ‘omics, imaging and biosamples).
This valuable new tool gives researchers at-a-glance information on more than 600 data assets that can be accessed for use in translation-focused dementia studies.
The project is funded and supported by Gates Ventures and the AD Data Enablement Fund.
Professor John Gallacher, Director of Dementias Platform UK, said the database would fill a gap in the translational research landscape and be of benefit to researchers across the globe.
‘Dementia researchers will know how time-consuming and frustrating it can be to search for available data assets that can help answer a chosen research question,’ said Professor Gallacher. ‘By bringing together detailed information on hundreds of studies worldwide, we hope we have made this task easier and provided a valuable addition to the dementia research landscape that will help speed up the translation of scientific insights into new treatments, diagnostics and prevention strategies.’
He added: ‘Our aim now is to continue working on this database and ensure it remains as up-to-date as possible.’
The DPUK Data Portal – which hosts the new Data Landscape Report – is a world-class repository and analysis environment for dementia-optimised cohort data. Free to use, it gives researchers anywhere in the world access to high-quality, multi-modal data from 60 population and clinical cohort studies, enabling access to participant-level data for over 3.5 million individuals. Available data includes lifestyle information, cognitive test results, brain imaging, and genetics.
Researchers can identify which cohorts and data are relevant to their proposed research question or area of study, apply for access to the data, and analyse it in a secure, remote environment complete with analytical software, multi-cohort and multi-modal capability.
View the DPUK Data Landscape Report.
If your dementia data asset is missing from the database, please email us with details at dpuk@psych.ox.ac.uk.