Research project: "Promotion of optimum brain ageing"
The Rehabilitation and Geriatrics Department of the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG) has signed a research protocol with CERN with a view to promoting better understanding of the mechanisms that trigger Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia associated with memory loss, inability to make plans and spatial disorientation. With 24 million sufferers worldwide at present, a figure that is predicted to rise to 29 million by 2020, it represents a major challenge for the coming decades. Prevention is a key factor in slowing the alarming spread of this disease. Delaying the onset of the disease could reduce the total number of cases by 50%.
Why CERN? CERN is an international research organisation with a workforce that is predominantly male (a section of the population that has been little studied so far) and has a high level of education. Moreover, its pensioners are easy to reach since the majority live in the Geneva area. The aim of the study is to evaluate the impact of the functional brain reserve and socio-economic status on the risk of contracting Alzheimer’s, in particular to establish whether these factors affect its frequency, age of onset and progression, and determine the incidence of any atypical clinical forms of the disease.
The study will comprise 3 stages (analysis of health patterns among the CERN population, cross-sectional screening, then longitudinal tracking on a voluntary basis) and will start with correlation of the relevant data contained in several CERN databases (Medical Service, Pension Fund, Human Resources and Health Insurance Scheme), which will be facilitated by use of a common means of identification.
The study has been submitted to the HUG ethics committee, which makes sure that researchers guarantee full data anonymity (absence of specific dates, names and addresses, and professional status confined to broad categories without any salary details). Moreover, the use of the results and any publication of them will be strictly subject to CERN’s approval.
A series of lectures on Alzheimer’s disease and its prevention and treatment has been running for CERN pensioners since November 2008 and will be followed later this year by a further series targeted towards the active staff.
A lecture on the theme of the brain reserve and the CERN-HUG research project will be given in the Main Auditorium on 25 February at 2:30 p.m.
by IT Department