The Horizon 2020-funded PRIME project ("Prevention and Remediation of Insulin Multimorbidity in Europe") aims to unravel how brain disorders throughout life can be traced to alterations in insulin signalling and how this relates to type 2 diabetes and obesity. Its sister project, RECOGNISED ("Retinal and cognitive dysfunction in type 2 diabetes: unravelling the common pathways and identification of patients at risk of dementia") is studying whether eye tests can identify people with diabetes at risk of dementia, also investigating the biological mechanisms that may link retinal dysfunction to cognitive decline.
On 17 May, PRIME organised a webinar for the project consortium, during which Prof. Noemi Lois (Queen's University, Belfast) gave an overview of the RECOGNISED project. During the webinar, Prof. Lois explained how RECOGNISED is undertaking two clinical studies, in which people with type 2 diabetes will undergo retinal scans, cognitive assessments and other clinical tests. Participants in the longitudinal study will be followed for 30 months, with regular tests to see how the scans and assessments change over time and during the course of cognitive decline. Alongside, RECOGNISED researchers will perform detailed mechanistic studies in cells and animal models of type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer's disease. In doing so, they hope to understand which genes and pathways might be involved in the retinal dysfunction that can accompany cognitive decline. The RECOGNISED presentation was followed by a question and answer session, identifying several areas for potential collaboration between PRIME and RECOGNISED.
PRIME has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No.847879
RECOGNISED has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No.847749
