Posted: 13th May 2025
Monash University received $953,751 from the Federal Government’s Medical Research Future Fund to study human brain cells for potential dementia treatments. This grant enabled the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences to “light up” human brain cells, allowing researchers to observe activity and identify new drug-like compounds with the potential to manage dementia symptoms.
Dementia, a broad term for neurodegenerative conditions characterized by gradual brain function impairment, significantly impacted quality of life. Neuroscience drug discovery had faced high failure rates, partly due to poor model systems for human brain disorders. To address this, Monash researchers developed new methods to measure the real-time activity of proteins directly linked to dementia using fluorescent chemical probes on lab-grown brain cells derived from human cells.
The research focused on changes in tau, a protein implicated in dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases, and amyloid, commonly found in Alzheimer’s disease. Professor Karen Gregory, lead investigator, emphasized the need for effective and safer medicines to manage dementia symptoms. “Our goal was to create new and improved human brain cell-based models to reliably and rapidly identify novel drug candidates with the best chance of becoming future medicines,” Prof Gregory stated.
The grant supported the development of methods, including using mRNA delivery of fluorescent biosensors, to measure real-time activity from different locations inside human brain cells. This research aimed to advance the understanding of dementia and pave the way for new treatments.
