Centre for brain ageing launched

A centre which will help tackle dementia was launched at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) on Monday.

The Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing has a focus on healthy ageing to enable Australians to live active, productive and fulfilling lives.

The centre will be led by UNSW Scientia Professors Henry Brodaty AO and Perminder Sachdev AM.

Funding for the UNSWinitiated centre has come from the Thomas Foundation, Montefiore Jewish Home, other philanthropic sources and donations, as well as grants from the Australian National Health & Medical Research Council and the Australian Research Council.

“Eventually we’d like to see more people ageing with healthy brains. That’s the ultimate aim,” Scientia Professor Brodaty says.

The centre has been officially launched 123 years to the day since the first Montefiore home opened and on the third anniversary of the death of Don Lane, who had Alzheimer’s disease and whose son PJ Lane is the centre’s ambassador.

“I’d love to know what it was – why such a brilliant mind was given such a lethal blow,” PJ Lane says of his father’s illness. “I hope this is an exciting wonderful step for research.”

UNSW Medicine Dean, Professor Peter Smith, says the funds provided a solid foundation for the faculty’s critical research into ageing.

“We have established a new Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing at UNSW. These very generous donations from the Thomas Foundation and the Montefiore Home will enable us to research important issues to tackle one of the most critical global public health challenges,” he says.

The research at CHeBA will be supported by grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Australian Research Council and many other funding bodies including the Viertel Foundation, Alzheimer’s Australia, the Rotary Health Fund and the Rebecca Cooper Foundation.