Dr Calum Bonthron

🚨Meet the latest early career researchers awarded Race Against Dementia Fellowships🚨

These rising stars are challenging old ideas and driving bold new approaches to speed up progress @RichardTaylor @sorayam.bsky.social @HelenRowland

FMRP regulates adult human cortical excitability via cyclic-AMP signalling Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) is a common inherited neurodevelopmental condition, resulting from loss of Fragile X Messenger Ribonuclear Protein (FMRP). Rodent models of FXS display cellular hyperexcitabil...

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

super excited to release this. nearly 7 years ago, we set out to investigate whether FMRP regulates excitability of neurons in living human brain tissue. we find loss of FMRP in adult neurons leads to elevated excitability, corrected by PDE4D inhibition.

Evidence for trans-synaptic propagation of oligomeric tau in human progressive supranuclear palsy - Nature Neuroscience McGeachan et al. observe oligomeric tau in synapses from individuals with progressive supranuclear palsy and provide evidence that tau pathology may spread through the brain via synapses.

Evidence for trans-synaptic propagation of oligomeric tau in human progressive supranuclear palsy, including postmortem PSP brain samples and a living human brain slice culture model

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

'People think my wife is drunk but she's living with a rare brain disease' Edinburgh couple hope for treatment for rare neurological condition progressive supranuclear palsy.

See a lovely piece on STV highlighting the impacts of this disease on families . While our new findings will not lead to a new treatment today, we aim to bring hope to people living with PSP for the future news.stv.tv/east-central...

Delighted to share our paper examining synaptic tau in PSP. Many thanks to @robertmcgeachan.bsky.social @clairedurrant1.bsky.social and our many collaborators and funders. And extra special thanks to tissue donors who make this work possible.

Living human brain tissue used to mimic Alzheimer’s in breakthrough study Exclusive: British team exposed live cells to toxic proteins to gather rare insight into how dementia develops Scientists have used living human brain tissue to mimic the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, in a breakthrough that will accelerate the hunt for a cure. In a world first, a British team successfully exposed healthy brain tissue from living NHS patients to a toxic form of a protein linked to Alzheimer’s – taken from patients who died from the disease – to show how it damages connections between brain cells in real time. Continue reading...

Living human brain tissue used to mimic Alzheimer’s in breakthrough study

Divergent actions of physiological and pathological amyloid-β on synapses in live human brain slice cultures - Nature Communications Understanding synapse loss in Alzheimer’s disease has been hampered by a lack of human model systems. Here, the authors show that manipulation of physiological or pathological Aβ has differing effects...

Fantastic to see this work from @clairedurrant1.bsky.social group out in print! Important results using living human brain tissue to study Alzheimer’s disease www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The Neuroscience of Defeating Dementia | Prof Tara Spires-Jones | TEDxUniversityofStAndrews YouTube video by TEDx Talks

It was a pleasure to visit St Andrews to deliver a TEDx talk! www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJME...

@bonthronphd.bsky.social highlighted the importance of industrial collaborations to work towards a cure, as well as showing off our lovely microscopes!

Amazing to welcome HRH The Duchess of Edinburgh, Patron of Race Against Dementia to our lab! An incredible opportunity to showcase our work with living human brain slice cultures and the importance of investing in dementia research. We are very lucky to have her support.

Guests from Alzheimer Scotland recently visited our labs, sharing their inspiring personal stories, the impact of diagnoses on their lives as well as the advocacy work they do for those living with dementia and their families. A reminder of why we do what we do. 🧠🔬🧫https://tinyurl.com/97z8ha9v

Looking forward to day 1 of the ARUK Research Conference 2025!