We are proud to announce that Marta Sochocka, PhD from the Laboratory of Virology has been awarded a 2024 January Alzheimer’s Association Research Grant (AARG) Program.

The Alzheimer’s Association has awarded funding of $200,000 for the project ‘Oral health: A window to improve systemic immune response in AD patients’. The grant will be carried out over a period of three years in collaboration with the Wroclaw Medical University and the UConn Center on Aging, Department of Psychiatry, University of Connecticut Health Center (USA).

The overarching goal of this project is to evaluate if the treatment of periodontal disease will improve immune response of peripheral immune cells, reduce the pro-inflammatory burden and will positively change the composition of the oral microbiome in men and women with Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, the project will evaluate if periodontal disease treatment may also improve quality of life, cognitive performance, and behavioural changes.