The UK DRI and the British Heart Foundation (BHF) are pleased to welcome new Group Leader Prof Catherine Hall to the BHF-UK DRI Centre for Vascular Dementia Research (CVDR). The £9M joint centre is the UK’s flagship investment in vascular dementia research, uniting leading researchers in the field.
Prof Hall joins the UK DRI from the University of Sussex, where she will maintain a part time position. The Hall Lab studies how the brain balances energy supply and demand, and how variations in this balance affect brain function. The team aims to understand which vascular cells control the brain’s energy supply, and how the regulation of energy supply, known as neurovascular coupling, varies during different brain states, across different brain regions and at the onset of conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.
“I’m really excited about being part of the Centre for Vascular Dementia Research and the UK DRI more broadly. It’s a fantastic opportunity to share ideas with others who are interested in vascular contributions to dementia, and to access cutting-edge facilities that will allow us to find out not only how brains are affected early in dementia, but to identify the underlying cellular mechanisms that drive those changes which could be targeted therapeutically.”
Group Leader
At the UK DRI, Prof Hall and her team will examine how changes in blood flow and oxygen supply might drive the onset of vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, by reducing blood flow or brain oxygen levels in mice and studying how neurons and blood vessels are affected. The lab will focus on brain regions known to be sensitive to damage during Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia, such as the hippocampus and white matter.
Prof Hall explained:
“Neurons need oxygen and glucose to fuel their activity. To balance their supply and demand, they signal to nearby blood vessels to dilate and increase blood flow, and therefore the amount of oxygen supplied to the tissue. We’re interested in how this happens during normal brain function and how brains respond when this balance is tipped and there isn’t enough oxygen.
We think this is important early during diseases like vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s, because a decrease in blood or oxygen supply is a common feature of really early disease stages, and low levels of oxygen can promote the accumulation of protein aggregates observed later in dementia. By understanding how this decrease in energy supply affects the brain, we hope to be able to identify new targets to prevent or delay the onset of dementia”
Prof Hall has worked on processes controlling energy supply and use by the brain for over 20 years. After completing her PhD at UCL, Prof Hall held a postdoc position in Prof David Attwell’s lab (UCL). There, she studied how nitric oxide signalling affects oxygen consumption in the brain, how nitric oxide and other signalling molecules interact to control blood flow regulation in the smallest blood vessels in the brain, and how this regulation is impaired after stroke.
Prof David Attwell, CVDR Centre Director, said:
“It’s great to welcome Catherine Hall, and her wide-ranging expertise in studying brain blood flow, to the Centre for Vascular Dementia Research. Catherine will join a group of 7 other scientists studying diverse aspects of Vascular Dementia in this Centre, which will formally be launched this year. Investment by the British Heart Foundation and by the UK Dementia Research Institute in this Centre is aimed at developing an understanding of, and eventually therapies for, Vascular Dementia.”
Professor Bryan Williams, Chief Scientific and Medical Officer at the British Heart Foundation, said:
“We’re very pleased to welcome Catherine to the BHF-UKDRI Centre for Vascular Dementia Research to complete the world-leading team at the Centre. Changes to blood flow and oxygen supply in the brain are key factors in the development of vascular dementia. Catherine’s expertise in this area, and her research to understand more about it, will be crucial to develop new ways of treating this condition.
“We look forward to seeing Catherine and our other outstanding group leaders drive the next breakthroughs in vascular dementia research.”
