What causes Vascular Dementia?

Summary

Vascular dementia is the second most common cause of dementia. The most common cause of vascular dementia is cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) in which the small vessels within the brain become diseased resulting in secondary ischaemia.

Despite its frequency and importance we have few treatments for CVSD and vascular dementia. However with recent advances in brain imaging and multiomic techniques we are discovering new disease mechanisms and potential treatment.

Project aims

This project will involve applying a number of multiomic techniques/genomics and/or proteomics and/or metabolomics to investigate the pathogenesis of vascular dementia, identify potential treatment targets, and try to predict which patients with vascular disease will progress to dementia.

The student will join a team who have an international reputation in this area and access to a number of unique datasets.

References

Debette S, Markus HS. Stroke Genetics: Discovery, Insight Into Mechanisms, and Clinical Perspectives. Circ Res. 2022 Apr 15;130(8):1095-1111. 

Smith EE, Markus HS. New Treatment Approaches to Modify the Course of Cerebral Small Vessel Diseases. Stroke. 2020 Jan;51(1):38-46. 

Harshfield EL, Sands CJ, Tuladhar AM, de Leeuw FE, Lewis MR, Markus HS. Metabolomic profiling in small vessel disease identifies multiple associations with disease severity. Brain. 2022 Jul 29;145(7):2461-2471. 

Contact details

Professor Hugh Markus - hsm32@medschl.cam.ac.uk

Opportunities

This project is open to applicants who want to do a:

• PhD