Research themes

Our multidisciplinary research spans five main research themes:

• Characterisation of clinical features
• Clinico-pathological correlation
• Phenotype-genotype relationships
• Cognitive Investigations
• Cognition and Neuroimaging

 

Characterisation of clinical features

Disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy body disease and the frontotemporal lobar degeneration syndromes of frontotemporal dementia, progressive aphasia and semantic dementia lead to unique patterns of cognitive and behavioural change.  An ongoing research theme is the characterisation of the precise nature of cognitive and behavioural changes associated with these disorders.  This is crucial for accurate diagnosis and appropriate clinical management of patients. 

 

Clinico-pathological correlation

Post-mortem pathological examination allows confirmation of clinical diagnosis. It is also essential in the development and refinement of diagnostic criteria. Analysis of the histopathological and molecular characteristics of disorders leads to a better understanding of their cause. 

The Manchester Brain Bank was set up in 1984 under the direction of David Mann, Professor of Neuropathology in collaboration with David Neary, director of the Cerebral Function Unit. The Brain Bank is now recognised as one of 5 National Brain Bank Centres, enabling collaborative research into the causes of neurodegenerative disease. The Centre depends on voluntary post-mortem brain donation by people affected by these disorders.

 

Phenotype-genotype relationships

Even within a diagnostic entity there is evidence that patterns of cognitive change may differ.  For example in Alzheimer’s disease there are a number of characteristic clinical profiles.  An important area of research, in collaboration with Prof D Mann, is to investigate the influence of genetic risk factors on clinical presentation. 

The examination of phenotype-genotype relationships is central to our research into frontotemporal lobar degeneration.  Joint work with Professor David Mann, Dr Stuart Pickering Brown and colleagues at the Mayo clinic, Florida has led to the identification of mutations in tau and progranulin genes on chromosome 17.  The focus of the laboratory based work is to understand the mechanisms by which these mutations cause disease.  Our own clinical research is concerned with how specific mutations relate to clinical characteristics.

 

Cognitive Investigations

Neurodegenerative diseases may give rise to highly selective breakdown in specific aspects of cognitive function, such as language, memory, and ‘frontal’ executive skills. These selective deficits shed light on the cerebral organisation of cognitive functions and their component processes.  Our current work includes studies of memory processes in Alzheimer’s disease, aspects of knowledge in semantic dementia, social cognition in frontotemporal dementia and Huntington’s disease and skill learning in Huntington’s disease.

Cognition and Neuroimaging

Our collaborative neuroimaging studies are designed to investigate the anatomical correlates of specific patterns of cognitive change with the aim of furthering understanding of the cerebral organisation of cognitive processes.