ForeFront provides a unique combination of clinical and laboratory-based research which together aim to unravel the mechanisms behind frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and motor neurone disease (MND) and help to develop effective treatments.
ForeFront comprises two government funded research groups across four themes:
FTD and MND NHMRC Program grant
Memory node of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders
Neuropathology
What regions and cell types are vulnerable? What proteins are affected?
Prof Glenda Halliday and Professor Jillian Kril
Animal modelling and cellular/molecular biology
What proteins are toxic and how do they cause pathogenesis? What cells are vulnerability and how can we prevent this?
Professor Jürgen Götz and Assoc. Professor Lars Ittner
Clinical
How does the disease spread through the brain? How can we develop identification tools and test symptomatic treatments?
Prof John Hodges and Prof Matthew Kiernan
Cognition and neuroimaging
What brain functions are impaired? What brain areas are impaired and which functions do they subserve?
Assoc Professor Olivier Piguet and Dr Michael Hornberger
For more information on the clinical aspects of these disease click here
For more information on the laboratory-based research on these diseases click here