Your donation
Support the orange appeal
Your gift today could help us develop treatments quicker.
The brain of a person with Alzheimer’s weighs around 140g less than a healthy brain; about the weight of an orange. This physical damage shows that dementia is caused by diseases that can – and will – be beaten through research.
Imagine a future where people are free from the fear, harm and heartbreak of dementia.
Your donation today can make that wish a reality.
Take a closer look
These microscopic images are helping researchers translate discoveries from their labs into potential new treatments.
It’s becoming clear that the cells highlighted in red and green play an active role in the function of the brain and it’s believed that in dementia diseases these cells start damaging the surrounding nerve cells.
Tau - one of the hallmark Alzheimer’s proteins - is highlighted here in fluorescent green. Scientists are studying how this protein becomes altered, and tangles during the diseases which cause dementia.
The green ‘strings’ you can see are the parts of nerve cells which transport signals to other cells in the brain. During Alzheimer’s, the most common disease that causes dementia, these signals are disrupted and cells lose the ability to communicate with each other.
Technology has transformed the way our scientists do research, which is speeding up the development of potential new treatments.
Without your kind support we would be unable to fund research which helps to understand brain cells function.
Thank you.
How much would you like to pay in?
For every £1 donated, 84p powers our research and helps people to understand and fight dementia.
How your donations are spent
For every £ spent on fundraising we raise £4 in donations
The difference your donations make
Thanks to donations, our scientists have been behind some of the biggest breakthroughs in dementia research. Their pioneering work is bringing us closer to a future without dementia.
We currently support 125 research projects across the UK and progress is being made continually. For example, Alzheimer's Research UK scientists discovered two new genes related to Alzheimer's: the first such breakthrough in 15 years. Over 16,000 people took part in the huge study. The findings were reported around the world and hailed by TIME magazine as one of the most important medical discoveries of the year.
