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Oxford Project to Investigate Memory and Aging (OPTIMA) Cohort

Over 700,000 people in the UK have dementia with the most common form being Alzheimer’s Disease (AD).  The social and economic costs of dementia are an estimated £17 billion per year, more than the costs of stroke, heart disease and cancer combined (equivalent to almost 20% of the health budget).  By 2040 it is estimated that there will be some 1.3 million people with dementia.  The cohort, following people through until they die, enables OPTIMA to make an important international contribution in this field.

Objectives:

• Identify new functional imaging, biochemical and neuropsychological biomarkers to improve early diagnosis and act as indicators of disease progression.

• Identify new modifiable risk factors for AD or for cognitive decline.

• Facilitate trials to see if modification of new risk factors by simple interventions in large populations reduces the risk of developing cognitive impairment and dementia.

• Evaluate new treatments for AD and develop methods to reduce the length of a subject’s exposure to new drugs in trials (at proof of concept stage), and reduce the number of subjects required.

• Improve existing, and develop better, outcome measures for use of new drugs in clinical trials; measures that better reflect the real impact of treatments on a patient’s and carer's quality of life.

Cohort Description:

• The original cohort, established in 1988, exceeds 1100 people (Jan 2012), with a brain donation rate of 80%.

• A subsidiary New Longitudinal Early Alzheimer’s Disease cohort (n = 263 (Jan 2012)) is recruiting participants aged 60 years plus, with a diagnosis of early AD, Mild Cognitive Impairment, or as Control subjects.

• Individual sub study cohorts are of varying size and theme (eg biochemical, imaging, neuropsychological), including: fMRI scan study and Cognitive Archaeology study - language based.

• The clinical database and biobank allow research into risk factors for AD and contribute to our understanding of the disease processes through collaborative research.

Achievements:

• Created a Translational Dementia Research Centre alongside clinical services in the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust:

• • Integrated OPTIMA and Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) elements into one programme, leveraging OPTIMA resources and expertise into the BRC Brain research theme.

  • Co-located this with NHS DeNDRoN Thames Valle (TV) clinical trials group, and Cochrane Dementia Group.

• Integrating research ethos into the NHS clinical service:

• • Joint working in Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust memory clinic and sharing space.

  • NHS trainees in research secondments, one lab and one clinically based.
    

• Examples of work published or nearing completion:

• • Structural Neuroimaging markers predict cognitive decline years before symptoms arise (manuscript in preparation).

  • Neuroimaging to validate the structural and functional basis of a visual memory task (diagnosis & trials).

  • Prediction of conversion from normal cognitive ability to Mild Cognitive Impairment (Neurology 2009).

  • Validation of proposed new criteria (Dubois 2007) for AD using autopsy confirmed cases (Int J Ger Psychiatr 2010).
    

Publications: For key publications click here.

Principal Investigator: Prof Gordon Wilcock.

Volunteering:

Want to know more about the project? Have a look at the OPTIMA website: www.medsci.ox.ac.uk/optima.

Want to know more about other volunteers’ experiences? Click here.

Contact:

Address: OPTIMA, Room 4403, Level 4, John Radcliffe Hospital, Headington, Oxford, OX3 9DU Phone: 01865 231453 / 231270 Fax: 01865 231154 Email: optima@ndm.ox.ac.