EXPERT HUB
Expertise: Risk Factors
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Expertise
#prevention #clinicaltrials #cohorts #riskfactors #cognition
Craig is the Professor of Psychiatry of Ageing at the University of Edinburgh, Director of Edinburgh Dementia Prevention and Director of Brain Health Scotland.
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Craig is internationally renowned for his work on the design and prosecution of clinical trials. He has been Principal Investigator for almost 30 commercial trials in Alzheimer’s disease, National Chief Investigator for 15 in the UK and Global Coordinating Investigator on 6.
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Craig’s research focuses on early detection of disease and the promotion of brain health throughout the life-course to mitigate risks for development and progression of brain diseases that lead to dementia.
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Craig is Chair of the Scottish Dementia Research Consortium (SDRC) and Chief Investigator of the European Prevention of Alzheimer’s Dementia (EPAD) Consortium and the PREVENT Dementia Programme.
Prof Craig Ritchie
Professor Alan Gow
Alan is a Professor of Psychology at Heriot-Watt University, where he leads the Ageing Lab and is Deputy Director of the Centre for Applied Behavioural Sciences. His research focuses on the identification of lifestyle and behavioural factors that predict healthy ageing, primarily cognitive ageing. That is, the factors that might protect or harm the ageing brain. Alan is mainly interested in factors which are modifiable, such as activity participation and exercise, social networks and support, and occupational characteristics and exposures. By being amenable to change, such factors are potential targets for interventions designed to reduce or delay the effect of ageing on cognitive abilities. He is currently developing new community-based interventions within The Ageing Lab where volunteers are supported in taking up new activities to assess the potential benefits of novel engagement and social connection for health and wellbeing.
Alan has almost 20 years’ experience researching ageing, including the design and delivery of longitudinal studies and interventions. He has strong working links with the third sector including Age Scotland and Age UK, being the national charities for older people, as well as international research collaborations across Europe and the US. Ensuring research has impact is a key priority for Alan, and he has been an invited contributor to the Global Council on Brain Health, an international collaboration from AARP/Age UK developing expert reports on the lifestyle factors associated with brain health, and the SAPEA report “Transforming the Future of Ageing” which reported to the European Commission in 2019.
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Alongside his research, Alan is involved in a number of public engagement and outreach activities to share what we think might benefit brain health as we age, ranging from talks with older people’s groups, performances at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and contributions to radio/TV. Those activities have been recognised with the British Psychological Society Public Engagement and Media Award in 2016, and as one of two runners-up in the 2019 Nature Research Awards for Driving Global Impact.
Dr Tom Russ
Tom is a consultant psychiatrist in NHS Lothian, Director of the Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Research Centre (ASDRC), University of Edinburgh, and an honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh.
He spends half his time on clinical work in two specialist dementia units and in the memory clinic in Edinburgh and the other half of his time on research. His research began by examining geographical variation in dementia risk in Scotland and Sweden and now focuses particularly on environmental risk factors for dementia, such as air pollution.
The overall research focus of the ASDRC is wide and balanced, ranging from optimising computational models to the lived experience of dementia, including what it feels like to feel free with dementia.