February 2024 marked the 10 year anniversary of the PREVENT dementia programme, 10 years on from when our first participant joined the study. We wanted to spend this special year celebrating with our participants and researchers who have been involved in the project over the years. Therefore, throughout the year we hosted a series of events showcasing the work carried out on PREVENT over the past decade.
Our first event was in March, hosted at the De Vere Connaught rooms in London. All participants were invited but mainly our London, Cambridge and Oxford participants attended. The event was opened by Katherine Gray Head of Research at the Alzheimer’s Research who shared reflections on PREVENT’s contribution to the dementia research community since the study started. Lead researchers from the project shared the work that has emerged from the PREVENT programme to date. Prof Craig Ritchie started by sharing the progress that has been made over the past 10 years and aspirations for the
next 10 years. Prof John O’Brien then gave an overview of key imaging findings from the study to date. This was followed by Prof Willie Stewart showcasing our more recent research with former rugby and football players, where he was kindly joined for a panel discussion with some former rugby players. In the afternoon session Prof Lorina Naci then provided an overview of findings in relation to lifestyle and risk factors for dementia. In the closing session Dr Laura Booi introduced the Next Generation Brain health programme which has been developed leading on from the work in PREVENT and is undertaking brain health research in young adults aged 18-39 years old. We were also joined by many other researchers who hosted stands showcasing their associated studies which have been developed from the core PREVENT programme. The event was a fantastic celebration of everything to come out of PREVENT over the past decade.
Following the success of our first event we invited our Edinburgh participants to a separate event at St Paul’s and St George’s Church in Edinburgh. At this event we had similar presentations from Prof Craig Ritchie and Prof Willie Stewart about research progress to date. We then had presentations from researchers based in Edinburgh and in Northern England who have been analysing data from the PREVENT programme.
Dr Oliver Shannon presented his work around nutrition and brain health and recent analysis of dietary data from PREVENT. Dr Sarah Gregory then shared information about hormones and brain health and some analysis she is currently working on using samples from PREVENT looking at the stress hormone cortisol. Samuel Gibbon presented progress from the retinal imaging study which is a study running just at the Edinburgh PREVENT site. Finally, Ludmila Kucikova shared some of the brain imaging analysis she has been working on as part of her PhD.
Our final event was in Dublin where our Dublin participants were invited to a reception to meet some of the researchers involved with the study and discuss their experiences of being involved with the study. The reception was the followed by a public lecture given by Prof Ian Robertson about Risk and Resilience in Dementia prevention.
We have had a fantastic year celebrating our 10 year anniversary and we thank everyone who joined us at these events and supported us to enable them to happen. Here’s to the next 10 years!
