Medical research: International experts gather in UCD this week to discuss medical research into neurodegenerative diseases including the eighth most common cause of death in the developed world - Alzheimer's disease.
Alzheimer's disease is a degenerative brain disorder that primarily affects older people. It may begin with simple forgetfulness but more advanced symptoms include confusion, language disturbances, personality and behaviour changes and impaired judgment. The disease can span from two to 20 years and the economic cost to families and society is enormous.
US estimates put the cost of the disease there at $80-100 billion per annum.
Dr Dominic Walsh from UCD's Conway Institute and a leading Irish expert on Alzheimer's, has warned that, with its ageing population, Ireland is sitting on a time bomb if the Government does not actively set the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases as a coherent research priority.
Speaking in advance of the conference Dr Walsh said: "The investment by Science Foundation Ireland [ SFI] has been monumental in providing a base for world class scientific research in Ireland. However, we need to focus efforts across the Irish universities into areas where we can create a critical mass of research to make breakthroughs that will impact directly on Irish society."
Taking statistics from the US, the reality is that up to 50 per cent of the population over 85 years of age suffer from Alzheimer's disease. Current estimates suggest that more than 35,000 people in Ireland suffer with Alzheimer's disease and a further 30,000 have other lesser-known dementias.
The single largest risk factor for developing Alzheimer's is age. Consequently, as life expectancy increases so too will the incidence of dementia.
Dr Walsh is among 250 delegates in the world working on different aspects of neurodegenerative diseases. His work concentrates on the processes leading to plaque formation and the toxic events that result from it.
He led the group that first identified toxic non-plaque forms of the amyloid protein and more recently has shown that these species can disrupt normal nerve cell activity and the ability to form and retrieve memory.