DPUK and Korea Dementia Research Center to work together for global benefit

Dementias Platform UK (DPUK) is pleased to announce it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the newly launched

 Korea Dementia Research Center (KDRC).

The two organisations will work together to provide shared access to data and to develop best practice in running experimental studies and recruiting participants to trials - all with the aim of enhancing global efforts to find new ways of preventing, diagnosing and treating dementia.

Based at Seoul National University in the Republic of Korea, KDRC was launched by the Korean government in 2020 to accelerate innovative, commercialisation-ready technology in dementia research. KDRC will provide funding for this work and promote collaboration among academic and research institutions, industry, and research hospitals worldwide.

Professor John Gallacher, Director of DPUK, said: ‘Dementia is a global public health challenge, with around 50 million cases identified worldwide and a new diagnosis every few seconds. It makes complete sense for organisations like DPUK and KDRC to work together, sharing ideas and best practice, to increase our chances of making the breakthroughs in dementia research that the world so badly needs. We’re delighted to be working with our colleagues in Korea and look forward to this collaboration bearing fruit as it develops.’

Professor Inhee Mook-Jung, Director of KDRC, said: ‘KDRC and DPUK have the same goal of curing and treating Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, so by working together we can develop synergistic research areas to accelerate the attainment of this goal. This is very timely, given the Korean government is actively supporting dementia research. I believe our MoU can open up new opportunities for active collaborations between KDRC and DPUK.’

The themes explored in this collaboration - data access, experimental study design, and volunteer recruitment - map on to DPUK’s three major research workstreams: the DPUK Data Portal, the Experimental Medicine Incubator, and the Trials Delivery Framework.