East Sussex-based philanthropists Hans and Märit Rausing are supporting new University of Sussex research into ageing and neurodegeneration.

Scientists in the University’s Neurodegenerative Disease and Ageing Research Centre (NeurARC) have last week awarded an Oxford graduate one of two PhD scholarships, funded by philanthropists Hans Rausing, former head of the multinational company Tetra Pak, and his wife Märit Rausing.

Applicants are still being considered for the second of the three-year scholarships, which aim to provide better understanding and more effective treatments for age-related neurological conditions such as genome damage, motor neurone disease and dementia (including Alzheimer’s disease).

Professor Keith Caldecott, Director of Research in Life Sciences at Sussex and one of the scientists who will supervise this new research, says: “There is a clear link between age and neurodegenerative disease, and with the ongoing global increase in average age, the number of people suffering from such diseases in the UK and world-wide is increasing. Despite this, existing treatments for neurodegenerative disease are limited.

“These new doctoral research programmes will address fundamental questions concerning the origin of neurological disease.”

The first project will look at DNA damage in different parts of the brain to determine the causes of neurodegeneration. The other project will focus on designing better drugs for treating motor neurone disease.