Centre for Ageing Dementia

Research (CADR)

Did you know, there are currently 280,000 Australians living with Dementia? Without a significant medical breakthrough, this is expected to soar to almost 1 million by 2050. Dementia is Australia’s third leading cause of death after heart disease and stroke and to date there is no cure.

Current treatments do not halt the neurodegenerative processes associated with dementia, instead providing only transient relief of existing symptoms. However, the Goetz Laboratory has identified several key mechanisms involved in the aetiology of dementia leading to the establishment of The Centre for Ageing Dementia Research (CADR) within the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI), at the University of Queensland. CADR will specifically address ageing dementia related questions, complementing the ongoing activities at QBI into understanding physiological brain function.

CADR has three major long-term goals:
• to develop non-pharmaceutical strategies to prevent or delay the onset of ageing dementia
• to develop more sensitive and accurate diagnostic tools
• and to develop novel pharmaceutical therapies to prevent or delay the onset of ageing dementia.

We are hopeful we will not only prevent and delay disease onset, but also reverse cognitive decline. The Centre will launch in 2012 and is expected to grow to five independent research groups within the next three years.

Director
Professor Jürgen Götz