Current research

Abnormalities in the tau protein can cause dementia. In this project Dr Wray will take skin cells from patients with abnormal tau and treat them with several factors. This will ‘reprogram’ the cells and turn them into stem cells. Stem cells have the potential to become any of the different cell types in the body and Dr Wray will then further direct these cells to become nerve cells. These nerve cells will contain the patient’s abnormal tau, and so the team will have a model of disease that can grow in a culture dish.

In Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, nerve cells in the brain gradually die, leading to symptoms that include memory loss. The team at UCL will compare cells with and without abnormal tau. This will help them understand why abnormal tau makes nerve cells vulnerable and leads to their death. Understanding what changes cause the death of nerve cells will help the development of new drugs to reverse these defects and halt or slow the progression of disease.