Press Kit: Dementia Research

Professor Anne Corbett

Professor Anne Corbett leads the PROTECT-UK study: a major research investigation into how brains age, early dementia detection and factors that might lead to prevention. Her work includes international studies, online clinical trials, and investigation into the role digital tools can play in improving health services. 

With a PhD in molecular biology, infection and disease, she has an academic grounding in molecular science and genetics, as well as several years’ experience within the research communications and implementation team at Alzheimer’s Society UK.

Professor Chris Fox

Having begun his career in psychiatry, Professor Chris Fox’s work now spans mental health and dementia research. In the past  fifteen years he has led pivotal national programmes in dementia hospital care, technology, medication and psychological interventions, and continues to lead Exeter’s international collaboration with Indiana University’s Medical School: a partnership that has produced influential work on medication trials and collaborative care in dementia. Chris works on multiple large-scale programmes in frontier artificial intelligence applied clinical innovation. He currently is industry theme lead at the NIHR Health Technology Research Centre coordinating centre. Chris co- leads INTERDEM's assistive technology and AI task force supporting Europe wide innovation and policy initiatives in brain health and dementia.

Alongside his academic and research projects, he has continued to be clinically active. He holds clinics in general psychiatry, neuropsychiatry, neurodiversity and women’s mental health as well as dementia. He holds positions in two NHS trusts. 

Professor Jonathan Mill

Professor Jonathan Mill and his team are currently investigating molecular variations in the brain: what causes them, their consequences, and how they are linked to neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia, as well as neurodevelopmental disorders like autism and schizophrenia. 

Psychiatric epigenetics has long been at the centre of his work. Before joining Exeter, he established the Institute of Psychiatry’s Psychiatric Epigenetics group, and is now head of the Complex Disease Epigenomics Group at the University of Exeter’s Medical School as well as Director of the UK Functional Genomics Initiative.

Professor Clive Ballard

Professor Clive Ballard has led the most dementia and cognitive health trials of any European researcher in the past decade. His work and the findings of these trials have significantly influenced dementia drug policy, including reducing the use of harmful antipsychotic medication by 50% and making anti-dementia drugs available to people who could benefit. 

As well as improving medication and care for people with dementia, he also focuses on the prevention of cognitive decline. In particular, his work on the PROTECT study of 100,000 global participants is investigating how lifestyle factors, genetic factors and mental health, as well as specific interventions such as brain training, physical activity and vitamin D, impact our brain health as we age. 

“We know dementia risk can be reduced by one-third through improving lifestyle factors from midlife. [The PROTECT] study will provide valuable information about how the brain changes with age, which combination of factors such as exercise and diet really work, and how we can best encourage people to adopt these changes.” 

Professor David Llewellyn

Professor David Llewellyn is one of the UK’s most innovative and influential dementia researchers. His work connects data science and AI to prevention, diagnosis and treatment, working across sectors and disciplines to shape industry and policy. This work includes landmark studies into how a healthy lifestyle can help mitigate the genetic risk of developing dementia, how the Mediterranean diet impacts brain health, and how AI could predict both who will develop dementia and who is at risk of being misdiagnosed. 

During his time as a Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute he co-founded the Interest Group in Precision Dementia Medicine. His work now increasingly focuses on how AI and digital medical devices can enhance the recruitment, implementation and accuracy of clinical trials. 

Professor Katie Lunnon

Professor Katie Lunnon is an expert in dementia genomics. Her research centres around epigenetics in particular, looking at the role DNA methylation plays in the development of dementia, and identifying epigenetic markers for diseases such as Alzheimer’s.  

Her work also looks into the link between neuroinflammation and dementia: a specialism she explored during her time with the University of Southampton’s CNS Inflammation Group where she looked into the impact of systematic inflammation on the brain.