Research to tackle the pressing health problem of ageing dementia has received a generous $43,000 boost from one of Australia’s largest trustees, The Trust Company Ltd.
The donation will be spent on supporting a Post Doctoral Fellowship in QBI’s new Centre for Ageing Dementia Research (CADR) headed up by leading international expert in neurodegenerative research Professor Jürgen Götz.
According to Mr Richard Galvin, Business Development Manager, The Trust Foundation made the donation in line with its strategy to support positive ageing.
“We strongly support organisations that promote the health and well-being of seniors in Australia, and research to address the rising rates of dementia in Australia is a clear priority,” he says.
According to a new Dementia Across Australia 2011-2050 report prepared for Alzheimer’s Australia by Deloitte Access Economics, close to a million people will be dealing with dementia by 2050 in the absence of significant medical breakthroughs.
The establishment of CADR by QBI represents an effort to forestall the enormous economic and social burden this will place on society.
“While the research focus of the centre is varied, it includes development of new therapies that regulate cell death and cellular regeneration within the adult brain,” says QBI Director Professor Perry Bartlett.
“This new centre will conduct research into how innate brain mechanisms could be used to treat the increasingly urgent problem of disease relating to the ageing brain.”
Professor Götz, who will commence his role with CADR in February 2012, has made many significant discoveries in the area of neurodegenerative disorders.
For example, he played an instrumental role in developing research which shows that the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease are characterised by amyloid-β plaques and Tau-containing neurofibrillary tangles.
He also established the first mouse model of Tau pathology and proved the amyloid cascade hypothesis.
The Trust Company has played a pivotal role in helping to care for, maintain, support and educate Australians of all ages for more than 125 years. For over 25 years The Trust Company Foundation has helped Australians make a difference to the lives of others through charitable giving and bequests.
Beginning with a single office in Melbourne at the time of the Victorian gold rush, The Trust Company has grown to be one of the largest trustees in Australia, employing more than 250 people across Australia and the Asia Pacific, and holding a market capitalisation in excess of $180 million.
MEDIA CONTACT
Denise Cullen
Executive Communications Officer
Phone: +61 7 3346 6434
Email: d.cullen2@uq.edu.au
NOTES TO THE EDITOR:
Queensland Brain Institute
The Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) was established as a research institute of the University of Queensland in 2003. The Institute is now operating out of a new $63 million state-of-the-art facility and houses 33 Principal Investigators with strong international reputations. QBI is one of the largest neuroscience institutes in the world dedicated to understanding the mechanisms underlying brain function.
