Mapping Neurodegeneration Diagnostics for a National Strategy - Medicines Discovery Catapult

About the client

The Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC) is an independent, not-for-profit organisation established by Innovate UK to reshape and accelerate drug discovery in the United Kingdom. They were recently appointed as key Delivery Partner for the set-up of the Neurodegeneration Initiative (NI) of the UK Government’s Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Mission. The NI is envisaged to be a new independent partnership that will co-design and co-invest in the strategy for the Dementia Mission, by engaging international industry and nationwide stakeholders.

Challenge

MDC needed a comprehensive scientific landscape of neurodegeneration diagnostic technologies to inform the strategic direction of the Neurodegeneration Initiative and support engagement with potential industry partners. The landscape needed to cover three modalities: fluid, imaging and digital biomarkers.

Approach

I was contracted by MDC to conduct the scientific landscape across the three biomarker modalities. During the project, I:

• Identified key researchers and companies that had published, patented or obtained funding in the UK to research biomarkers of neurodegeneration. The results of this work were drafted into a paper for the Dementia Mission Scientific Advisory Board.

• Mapped out key national and international stakeholders doing work on biomarkers at different stages of development — from novel discovery to clinical implementation.

• Helped define potential scientific outcomes that the Neurodegeneration Initiative could deliver in partnership with industry. These fed into pitches to industry partners and the industry expression-of-interest process.

Throughout the project I worked in very close collaboration internally with colleagues from MDC, and externally with colleagues at the Office for Life Sciences (OLS). I actively engaged with the Dementia Mission’s Funding Partners (OLS, Medical Research Council, and Innovate UK), and participated in meetings with key senior figures in the UK’s dementia research landscape and industry members.

Outcomes

This project exemplifies the critical role of collaborative, multidisciplinary work in advancing research efforts to deliver positive results for patients. By conducting a data-driven landscape analysis and helping bring together key stakeholders across academia, industry, and government, this work has contributed towards laying a robust foundation for the Neurodegeneration Initiative, and helped set the stage for long-term advancements in diagnosing and treating neurodegenerative diseases in the UK.