Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the scale of the gap in the understanding of neurodegenerative diseases; how this compares to other similarly complex disease areas; and what steps they are taking to support research into the biological causes of dementia.

Government responsibility for delivering dementia and neurodegeneration research is shared between the Department of Health and Social Care, with research delivered by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology, with research delivered via UK Research and Innovation. The NIHR funds translational, clinical, and applied health and care research.

The Government has not assessed the scale of the gap in the understanding of neurodegenerative diseases; and how this compares to other similarly complex disease areas. However, the Government has funded research which looks across neurodegenerative and complex conditions and opportunities to apply learning from research into one condition to another. A recent study undertaken at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology determined the structures of α-synuclein filaments from the brains of individuals with Parkinson’s disease and dementia with Lewy bodies, which will aid in the development of better diagnostics for Lewy body diseases.

The Government supports research into the biological causes of dementia, for example, at the UK Dementia Research Institute, scientists are undertaking ground-breaking research on the biological mechanisms of dementia, driving early-stage development of diagnostics and treatments, and developing innovative technologies for assisted living.