###Developing Methods for Non-Invasive Assessment of Blood-Brain-Barrier Permeability to Water using MRI
Project ID: 2228bd1215 (You will need this ID for your application)
Research Theme: Healthcare Technologies
UCL Lead department: Division of Medicine
Lead Supervisor: Jack Wells
Project Summary:
Alzheimer’s disease is a devastating illness that causes severe memory loss. Despite the huge social, economic and emotional burden of the condition, there is currently no cure.
The development of effective treatments is hindered by the difficulty of accurately identifying the early phase of the disease, years before symptoms become apparent.
Recent evidence has come to light suggesting that breakdown of the blood-brain-barrier, the lining of the blood vessels that perfuse the brain, may be a critical causal factor that occurs early in the disease to drive downstream symptoms such as memory loss and cognitive impairment. However, our understanding of this process is currently limited due to a lack of practical techniques for sensitive detection of blood-brain-barrier breakdown.
The aim of this project is to develop novel and non-invasive methods to image blood-brain-barrier permeability to water, using MRI. Such methods can then be applied to models of disease to fully understand their value as novel tools for early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, where interventional treatment may then successfully delay or prevent symptoms later in life.