Dr Anya Topiwala, Wellcome Clinical Career Development Fellow at the Big Data Institute and consultant psychiatrist at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, has been awarded a Wellcome Career Development Award that will fund eight years of research into alcohol-related dementia.
The prestigious scheme provides funding for mid-career researchers who have the potential to be international research leaders. Dr Topiwala has been awarded £2.4 million to support herself and to grow her research team.
Alcohol-related dementia is a condition where the brain can become damaged as a result of drinking too much alcohol on a regular basis. People with the condition often struggle with activities that require cognitive skills such as problem solving and with managing their emotions. Alcohol-related dementia has not been well researched in the past, despite there being an increased need to understand and treat the condition.
Previous studies by Dr Topiwala have demonstrated that alcohol consumption may be able to cause dementia but it is not yet known why this happens. The funding from this award will aim to identify the pathways by which alcohol leads to dementia.
This research will focus on:
- examining whether alcohol can affect the risk of developing dementia and how the disease might progress;
- establishing whether variations in individuals’ genetic makeup can influence their risk of developing dementia if they drink alcohol;
- identifying the physical changes in the body that drive alcohol’s impact on dementia.
To be able to do this, Dr Topiwala and her team will use a combination of large-scale datasets containing health information, including genetic data, from people living in China, Estonia, the UK, and the US. She will collaborate closely with leading scientists at Yale University, where she holds an adjunct position, and the universities of Cambridge and Oxford.
Dr Topiwala said ‘Understanding the relationship between dementia and alcohol is vital given that many people drink alcohol and it is considered socially acceptable but there are currently no known treatments for dementia. The results of this study will help us to understand more about how alcohol leads to dementia and support the development of specific identification, management, and treatment strategies for alcohol-related dementia.’