How does tau spread through the brain?

In Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia, tau proteins in the brain start to behave out of character.

These changes cause tau to stick together and form damaging tangles inside nerve cells.

Abnormal tau can spread across the brain, passing from cell to cell in a dangerous chain reaction.

This happens in a predictable way, but it is unclear how the proteins spread and exactly what effect this has on the brain.

Prof Amrit Mudher and her lab will create a new way to study this process that will help us to understand how the damaging tau protein spreads.

This knowledge will help scientists searching for new treatments to slow or stop these diseases.