About this event
As we gain a greater understanding on what is brain health and what causes dementia in humans, there is growing interest of whether this also occurs in other animals. This One Medicine approach has gained popularity and so in this unique one-day workshop, we will showcase work that has been done from flies, rodents, cats, dogs, bats, pigs, sheep, seals, dolphins and even humans are showing surprisingly similar correlations. In this first unique type of meeting, we will discuss how this expanding field can help all animals
This is a joint event between the Brain Health ARC and Humanimal Trust.
As we gain a greater understanding on what is brain health and what causes dementia in humans, there is growing interest of whether this also occurs in other animals. This One Medicine approach has gained popularity and so in this unique one-day workshop, we will showcase work that has been done from flies, rodents, cats, dogs, bats, pigs, sheep, seals, dolphins and even humans are showing surprisingly similar correlations. In this first unique type of meeting, we will discuss how this expanding field can help all animals
This is a joint event between the Brain Health ARC and Humanimal Trust.
|
|
|
About Humanimal Trust
Humanimal Trust encourages collaboration and shared connection between doctors, vets and researchers, so that all humans and animals benefit from sustainable and equal medical progress - but not at the expense of an animal’s life. This is One Medicine.
We are proud to be part of the conversation around brain health and dementia, supporting research and collaborations that can move understanding, prevention and treatment forward for people and animals. There are important similarities between humans and other animals in how neurological diseases develop and progress, and studying naturally occurring disease in both can provide valuable insights and opportunities to learn from one another.
Humanimal Trust champions collaborative, cross-disciplinary research that aims to maximise the potential of data and knowledge gained from naturally occurring disease in animal patients, rather than using animal models for human disease. We believe this approach can help to provide vital information about the complex biological, genetic and environmental factors involved in conditions such as dementia, while also working to reduce the dependency on experimental animal testing until it can become obsolete.
Supporting this collaborative event, between veterinary, medical and scientific communities, reflects our commitment to being part of these important conversations, thus enabling ethical research that can benefit humans and animals alike.
Humanimal Trust encourages collaboration and shared connection between doctors, vets and researchers, so that all humans and animals benefit from sustainable and equal medical progress - but not at the expense of an animal’s life. This is One Medicine.
We are proud to be part of the conversation around brain health and dementia, supporting research and collaborations that can move understanding, prevention and treatment forward for people and animals. There are important similarities between humans and other animals in how neurological diseases develop and progress, and studying naturally occurring disease in both can provide valuable insights and opportunities to learn from one another.
Humanimal Trust champions collaborative, cross-disciplinary research that aims to maximise the potential of data and knowledge gained from naturally occurring disease in animal patients, rather than using animal models for human disease. We believe this approach can help to provide vital information about the complex biological, genetic and environmental factors involved in conditions such as dementia, while also working to reduce the dependency on experimental animal testing until it can become obsolete.
Supporting this collaborative event, between veterinary, medical and scientific communities, reflects our commitment to being part of these important conversations, thus enabling ethical research that can benefit humans and animals alike.
Agenda
Time |
Title |
Speaker |
09.00 - 09.30 |
Arrival |
|
09.30 - 10.00 |
Introductions Humanimal Trust and Brain Health ARC introductions How did we get here? What is the purpose of today? |
Prof Frank Gunn-Moore Dr Robert McGeachan Prof Terry Quinn |
Session One: Standard Models
Chair: Prof Terry Quinn
Chair: Prof Terry Quinn
Time |
Title |
Speaker |
10.00 - 10.15 |
Flies |
Dr Nathan Woodling |
10.15 - 10.30 |
Translation of Assessments - Functional |
Dr Lorraine Work |
10.30 - 10.45 |
Translation of Assessments - Cognitive |
Dr Tracy Farr |
10.45 - 11.00 |
Questions |
Prof Terry Quinn |
11.00 - 11.30 |
Coffee / Tea |
Session Two: Advanced Care Models
Chair: Prof Frank Gunn-Moore
Chair: Prof Frank Gunn-Moore
Time |
Title |
Speaker |
11.30 - 11.45 |
Cetaceans |
Dr Mark Dagleish |
11.45 - 12.00 |
Pigs |
Prof Atticus Hainsworth |
12.00 - 12.15 |
Seals |
Dr Chris McKnight |
12.15 - 12.30 |
Bats |
Dr Sonja Vernes |
12.30 - 12.45 |
Brain Health in Animals |
Prof Alistair Lawrence |
12.45 - 13.00 |
Questions |
Prof Frank Gunn-Moore |
13.00 - 14.00 |
Lunch |
Session Three: Companion Animals including clinical trials
Chair: Mary Fraser
Chair: Mary Fraser
Time |
Title |
Speaker |
14.00 - 14.20 |
Humans |
Prof Tara Spires-Jones |
14.20 - 14.40 |
Cats (part 1) |
Prof Danielle Gunn-Moore |
14.40 - 15.00 |
Cats (part 2) |
Dr Robert McGeachan |
15.00 - 15.20 |
Dogs |
Dr Elizabeth Head |
15.20 - 15.30 |
Questions |
Session four: Debate
Time |
Title |
Chair |
15:30 - 16.30 |
Debates with tea/coffee |
Prof Tom Wishart |
Open questions:
|
16.30 - 17.00 |
Outcomes and close |
Prof Frank Gunn-Moore |
Speakers/ Session Chairs
Prof Frank Gunn-Moore
|
Professor Frank Gunn-Moore is an academic and researcher in the field of neurodegeneration and dementia research. His group have made discoveries in understanding the cellular and biochemical mechanisms involved in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease (specifically linking mitochondrial and synaptic dysfunction), where his group has pioneered new models (including the first identification that cetaceans – whales and dolphins – also show similar pathology) and identified potential therapeutic targets with resultant industrial collaboration for novel inhibitors. Using both molecular and novel biophysical techniques, he has also discovered novel signalling pathways that are involved in the growth and development of mammalian neurons, including the first identification of the gene FRMD6/Willin as an upstream component of the Hippo pathway, which prior to his work was thought to be involved only in cancer. In collaboration, he has developed novel optical technology with the production of patents that have been further developed by industry. The interdisciplinary breadth and depth of his research is illustrated by publication of >150 research papers across journals in Biology, Chemistry or Physics.
|
|
DR Robert McGeachan
|
Dr Robert McGeachan is undertaking the University of Edinburgh Clinical Academic Track (ECAT), combining an active programme of research
with clinical training. His research focuses on the mechanisms underlying the initiation and progression of neurodegenerative disorders, with a particular emphasis on synaptic pathology in Alzheimer’s disease and related conditions. Informed by a strong One Medicine and comparative perspective, his work adopts a cross-species approach, utilising naturally occurring models of human disease to simultaneously advance our understanding and treatment of dementia-causing disorders in both humans and animals. His research has been published in high-impact peer-reviewed journals and has attracted extensive national and international media attention. Alongside his research programme, Dr McGeachan is undertaking a residency in veterinary neurology and neurosurgery, with a particular clinical interest in spinal surgery. He is especially motivated by achieving meaningful functional recovery and improving long-term quality of life for his patients and finds few aspects of his work more rewarding than seeing a previously paralysed animal walk again. |
|
Prof terry quinn
|
Terry is the David Cargill Chair in Geriatric Medicine and Honorary Consultant Physician, University of Glasgow
He has a broad research portfolio, his principal research interests are around trial methodology, functional assessment, and neuropsychological consequences of cardiovascular disease. He holds major grants from Government, Research Councils, Charity and Industry. He supports research through roles as UK RDN lead for ageing research, NRS lead for ageing, chair of Brain Health ARC and Scottish Dementia Research Consortium. He is deputy lead for the NIHR Complex Reviews Support Unit, past editor of Cochrane Dementia, and past chair of European Stroke Organisation Guideline committee. Terry combines his research portfolio with active teaching and clinical commitments in the major Glasgow hospitals. |
|
dr elizabeth head
|
Dr. Head received a Masters in Psychology and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Toronto, Canada. She received postdoctoral training at the Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders (UCI MIND) at the University of California – Irvine. She is a Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine. Dr. Head has been working with a canine model of human brain aging and Alzheimer Disease to test novel interventions that may be translated to people. Dogs naturally develop cognitive decline beginning in middle age that is associated with increased beta-amyloid pathology, reduced neurogenesis and neuron loss in the hippocampus. Neuroimaging studies show decreased white matter integrity in aging dogs along with structural brain atrophy.
Dr. Head has conducted several intervention studies with the most recent being to evaluate an FDA approved drug to prevent cognitive decline and brain aging in beagles. She has over 25 years of experience working with aging dogs, developed cognitive tests to assess learning and memory in dogs and has an extensive background in measuring AD neuropathology both in dogs and in human brain samples. |
|
dr tracy farr
|
Dr Farr's focuses on understanding the biological underpinnings of cerebrovascular disease and she makes extensive use of multi-modal neuroimaging.
Dr Farr has always sat in the translational realm and work with both small and large animal models of stroke and vascular dementia. Recently, she has developed an interest in whole-brain imaging connectivity approaches to help predict outcomes. |
|
prof sonja vernes
|
Sonja Vernes is Professor in Biology at the University of St Andrews, where she leads a research programme investigating how genes influence brain function and behaviour across species. Her work combines genomics, molecular biology, neuroscience and animal behaviour to understand the biology and evolution of communication, cognition, and brain development, and what these can tell us about human neurodevelopmental disorders. A particular focus of her research has been the development of bats as a mammalian model for speech, language and disorders of communication. She established the UK's only Home Office-licensed bat research colony and uses studies of vocal communication in bats to explore the links between genes, neural circuits and behaviour. She is also a founding director of the international Bat1K Consortium, which is working to generate reference genomes for all living bat species.
|
|
prof atticus hainsworth
|
Atticus Hainsworth is a translational scientist with wide experience in cardiovascular research. After training in Physiology and Pharmacology at Cambridge and Rush Medical Center, Chicago, his first faculty position was at the new University of Greenwich. After a sabbatical at Harvard-MGH he was recruited as a New-Blood group leader at St George’s University of London. His current role is Professor of Cerebrovascular Disease. Atticus is an international expert on small vessel disease, which is the main cause of lacunar stroke and vascular contributions to dementia. His research programme focuses on molecular understanding and treatment of small vessel disease and vascular dementia. In a multi-disciplinary collaboration with the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, University of Bristol, Glasgow and King’s College London, Atticus's group has recently generated a novel BHF-funded transgenic pig model with cardiovascular phenotype. The animals express EDN1 (encoding Endothelin-1) under an inducible TetON promoter. This allows us to initiate transgene expression in adult animals, to avoid developmental effects.
|
|
prof tara spires-jones
|
Tara Spires-Jones, DPhil(Oxon), FMedSci, FRSE is the Professor of Neurodegeneration at the University of Edinburgh, a Division Lead in the UK Dementia Research Institute, and the President-Elect of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS). She has worked in the field of dementia research for over 20 years investigating the brain changes that cause Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Prof Spires-Jones trained in Biochemistry and French at the University of Texas at Austin as an undergraduate and earned a master’s and DPhil in Neuroscience from the University of Oxford supervised by Prof Sir Colin Blakemore and Prof Anthony Hannan. She then moved to Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School for postdoctoral training with Prof Bradley Hyman where she stayed and started her own group as an Instructor then Assistant Professor. In 2013 she moved to the University of Edinburgh as a Reader and Chancellor’s Fellow and was promoted to Professor in 2017.
Prof Spires-Jones’ group discovered that synapses, the connections between neurons, are damaged by pathological proteins that accumulate in the brains of people with dementias, and that pathology spreads through the brain by jumping through these synaptic connections. Her work has been instrumental in developing future therapeutic strategies for Alzheimer’s and similar diseases. She has won prestigious accolades for research including election as President of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (2028-2030), election as President of the British Neuroscience Association (2023-2025), receipt of the Grundke-Iqbal prize for the most impactful study in the Alzheimer’s field (2024), election as a Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences, and election as a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In addition to her research, Prof Spires-Jones is passionate about increasing the rigour and reproducibility in translational neuroscience; promoting inclusivity and diversity in science; and supporting career development of neuroscientists. She also promotes public understanding of science including acting as an expert commentator in the media about neuroscience and dementia research and writing a popular science book “Fighting for our minds: The neuroscience of defeating dementia” published by Oxford University Press. |
|
dr nathan woodling
|
Nathan Woodling has a background in neuroscience and molecular genetics. He completed his PhD in 2013 at Stanford University, where he studied the way that inflammatory signalling pathways in microglia contribute to the types of neurotoxicity seen in Alzheimer’s disease. He then moved to the UCL Institute of Healthy Ageing for his postdoctoral work, which investigated how both glial and neuronal cells can modulate ageing of the nervous system through distinct signalling pathways. In 2019, he was awarded an Alzheimer’s Society Junior Fellowship to investigate how these same pathways affect models of Alzheimer’s disease neurotoxicity. In 2022, Nathan moved to the University of Glasgow to start his own research group, which has been supported by a Wellcome Trust Career Development Award since 2024. His group primarily uses the fruit fly Drosophila as a tractable model system to investigate how cell signalling pathways modulate ageing and age-related susceptibility to neurodegenerative diseases.
|
|
prof tom wishart
|
BSc, MBA, PhD, FRSB, FAS, Professor of Molecular Anatomy.
Tom’s research explores the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the stability of the nervous system in health and disease. With a focus on translational approaches he is known for his collaborative work across disciplines and his efforts to connect basic science with therapeutic development. Former Deputy Director (responsible for all Translation and Commercialisation activity - DD T&C) and Academic lead for Proteomics and Metabolomics at the Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh (until Oct 2024) and remains Head of the Academic Led Livestock Models of Neurological Disorders grouping (ALLMoND, 2017-Present). He is now Neuroscience lead (Oct 2024-Present) and Interim Director of the John Van Geest Research Centre (JvGRC) at the School of Science and Technology (SST) at Nottingham Trent University (NTU). |
|
Prof Danièlle A. Gunn-Moore
|
OBE, BSc (Hon), BVM&S, PhD, MANZCVS (Feline), FHEA, FRSB, FRCVS, RCVS Specialist in Feline Medicine
Professor in Feline Medicine, Royal Dick School of Veterinary Studies and The Roslin Institute After graduation (RDSVS), Danièlle Gunn-Moore completed her Residency (University of Bristol), a PhD into Feline Infectious Peritonitis (1997), and returned to Edinburgh to establish the Feline Clinic (1998), becoming Professor of Feline Medicine (2006). She is interested in all aspects of feline medicine, has lectured extensively and published >200 peer-reviewed research papers, plus many reviews and chapters. She was awarded the BSAVA Woodrow Award for outstanding contribution in small animal veterinary medicine (2009), the International Society for Feline Medicine/Hill’s award for Outstanding Contributions to Feline Medicine (2011), Fellow of the RCVS and Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (2017) and Order of the British Empire for Services to Feline Medicine presented by The King (OBE; 2026). |
|
dr mark dagleish
|
BVM&S, PhD, MRCVS, FRCPath
Mark Dagleish graduated from the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies in Edinburgh in 1990, spending over 4 years in, primarily, small animal practice, including a year at the PDSA, before returning to the ‘Dick’ to undertake a PhD characterising aspects of the proteinase: antiproteinase balance in horses with reference to lung disease. Subsequent to this, he was awarded a lectureship in animal science at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth in 1998. In June 2002 he returned to Scotland to take up the position of veterinary pathologist at the Moredun Research Institute, in 2009 became Head of Pathology and in 2010 an advisor to the editorial board of the Journal of Comparative Pathology. In 2014 he was awarded Fellowship of the Royal College of Pathologists by published work and in 2017 invited onto the Editorial Board of the Journal of Comparative Pathology. In 2020 he joined the UK Home Office Animals in Science Regulatory Unit, then in 2022 took up the position of Senior Clinician in Anatomic Pathology and Head of Anatomic Pathology at Glasgow University, and Head of Division of Veterinary Pathology, Public Health and Disease Investigation in 2023. He retired from Glasgow and became Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Comparative Pathology in 2025. His principal areas of research are lung disease and transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in ruminants, and the pathology of diseases of wildlife with special reference to marine mammals. Diagnostically, he spent 18 years undertaking histological examinations of neurological and abortion cases of fallen livestock in Scotland and 22 years evaluating the histopathology of sea mammals stranded on the Scottish coastline. |
|
prof alistair lawrence
|
Alistair Lawrence: Professor of Animal Behaviour and Welfare at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) and the Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh:
My focus is the study animal behaviour and welfare in farm and laboratory animals. My interest in brain health stems from the growing evidence that the environment strongly shapes animals’ resilience to challenges such as disease, and the role that non-neuronal cells play in this. The questions raised requires taking account of behavioural, neuroscience and immunological perspectives. As I come from an animal welfare perspective, I am also interested in the relationships between affective state, brain health and resilience. Recently I have become interested in sickness behaviour as a model system to study all these elements. |
|
dr chris mcknight
|
Chris is a senior Research Fellow at the University of St Andrews’ Sea Mammal Research Unit. He specialises in diving physiology of diving mammals including seals and breath-holding diving peoples such as the Haenyeo. His research focuses on the adaptations of basic bulbar-level responses of cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory function, as well as cognitive influence for these responses.
|
|
prof lorraine work
|
Professor Lorraine Work is Professor of Translational Cerebrovascular Research in the School of Cardiovascular & Metabolic Health at the University of Glasgow. Her research focuses on translating advances in vascular and cerebrovascular science into improved therapies and outcomes for patients, with a particular interest in stroke and cerebrovascular disease. She uses preclinical models (both in vitro and in vivo) alongside strong collaborative links with her clinical colleagues to promote translation. Her group uses the spontaneously hypertensive stroke prone rat as an animal model to model the co-morbidities associated with stroke clinically.
|
|
