Prestigious £1.6M MRC Career Development Award given to develop dementia diagnostic tool
Dr John Danial, from the School of Physics and Astronomy, will use the award to support research into developing a pan-dementia blood-based diagnostic tool
3 Jul 2025
Dr. John Danial, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews
A University of St Andrews academic has been awarded a £1.6 million Career Development Award from the Medical Research Council (MRC).
Dr John Danial, from the School of Physics and Astronomy, will use the prestigious award – one of only nine in the UK this year - to support research into developing a pan-dementia blood-based diagnostic tool, an important step toward addressing the lack of accessible diagnostics for neurodegenerative diseases, including rare dementias.
Dr Danial will be working closely with leading experts to develop this tool, including Professor Craig Ritchie at the University of St Andrews School of Medicine, who is also the founder and CEO of Scottish Brain Sciences. Also with Drs Michel Goedert and Sjors Scheres at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge, Professor Jonathan Schott at UCL and UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI), and Professor Huw Morris at UCL
Recent research using high resolution electron microscopy from the Goedert and Scheres labs has shown that proteins – known as amyloids – in different neurodegenerative diseases assemble into fibrils of different structures. This is a critical finding as it shows that if we can detect the structure of those fibrils in human fluids we can readily diagnose any neurodegenerative disease.
The tool John will develop will capture amyloid strands in blood and use bespoke fluorescent dyes developed by Amandeep Kaur at Monash University to fingerprint their structures which will be picked up with high resolution microscope to detect and discriminate brain disease. This will help support early diagnosis and provide medical practitioners with the timely information they need to treat neurodegenerative illnesses.
The MRC Career Development Award is designed to support researchers as they establish their own teams, lead independent research programmes, and contribute to improving human health. John’s project aligns with the MRC’s remit in neurosciences and mental health, aiming to improve the early and accurate diagnosis of multiple forms of dementia.
Dr Danial said: “I am very pleased to receive this award which will support my group in developing a single accurate blood diagnostic for a wide range of brain diseases, including rare ones that are fatal. The award represents a key milestone for my group in materialising an idea into a tool of transformative impact.”
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