BRACE - Raising money for research into dementia

What has BRACE accomplished?

BRACE has funded dementia research in the greater Bristol area since 1987. Since then it has committed over £10 million to supporting multidisciplinary research in all aspects of dementia. Some of the significant contributions that BRACE has helped to bring about are;

• The development of an assessment tool, Bristol Activities of Daily Living Scale (BADLS) which is used worldwide to assist in the diagnosis of dementia.
• The setting up of a bespoke clinical research facility.
• The promotion of a 'Gold Standard' protocol to assess and treat patients in the Memory Clinic environment to provide an accurate diagnosis as quickly as possible.
• Supporting staff who have played key roles in the research and development of the four drugs that have been developed for the treatment of the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.
• The establishment of a Brain Bank with donations from healthy people and also from sufferers. This material is made available to researchers worldwide in collaborative projects.
• Supporting studies that show how the brain works in order to better understand the problems that occur in the brain of people with dementia and to target research into the potential of new molecules as the basis for new drugs to treat the disease.
• Supporting studies investigating why some people get dementia and others don't by comparing the genetic make-up of sufferers and non-sufferers.
• Ensuring that the researchers we support don't keep their results a secret! All our researchers have contributed numerous articles to specialist scientific and medical journals, and presented their findings to international conferences.
• Supporting young scientists wanting to make a career in dementia research through the funding of PhD Studentships and Post-doctoral research posts, ensuring that there are researchers being trained in dementia research.

This represents just some of the ways that BRACE funding has helped to support talented researchers to carry out research with the express aim of finding treatments and ultimately a cure for Alzheimer's disease and other dementias.

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