About

Lucy is a senior research associate at University College London in the UK where she completed her PhD back in 2020. Lucy’s initial research investigated the role of social cognition in FTD when she started working with the Genetic FTD Initiative (GENFI). As part of her PhD she also developed a novel set of instructionless eye tracking tasks to study social cognition in FTD.

She is now the coordinator of the FTD Prevention Initiative (FPI), helping to link together the genetic FTD cohort studies from around the world, and liaising with pharmaceutical companies as new drug trials start for people with FTD. Much of her research now focuses on the development of many different types of digital assessments in FTD, including assessments of cognition, speech and motor aspects of the disease. Lucy has also been working on disease progression models as part of her work with the FPI, and has recently been awarded a grant from the Alzheimer’s Society to continue this work in the GENFI cohort.

What is your area of research as it relates to FTD?

My research focuses on developing novel tasks to identify the earliest stages of FTD and to help track the development of the disease. My recent work has focused on motor aspects of the disease, along with different types of disease progression models. I am also actively involved with the development of disease modifying therapies by organising the FTD Prevention Initiative.

What inspired you to do FTD research?

A personal experience of dementia led me into the field and my interest in FTD came from the range of symptoms and different types of FTD there are. It is such a devastating illness and can impact individuals at such a a young age that I would really like to help make a difference to these individuals and their families, increase awareness and understanding of the disease, and hopefully contribute towards the development of treatments.

What challenges have you faced in FTD research?

The biggest challenge so far has to be trying to get a gene therapy program up and running at our hospital. There have been many hurdles and problems that have meant that it has taken an extremely long time to get the AAV clinical trial set up and going at our site.

What hopes do you have for FTD research?

I hope that soon we will be able to distinguish between Tau and TDP-43 proteinopathies during life in order to start developing treatments for sporadic FTD.