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Headline: Indian and UK Research Institutes Join Forces to Tackle Diabetes-Dementia Link
CHENNAI, October 26, 2025 – In a significant step towards understanding the complex relationship between diabetes and brain health, the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation (MDRF) in Chennai, the Centre for Brain Research (CBR) at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru, and the UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI) have announced a collaborative research effort.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on Saturday, formalizing the partnership between the three institutions. The collaboration aims to leverage the expertise of specialists in diabetes, neuroscience, and dementia to investigate how metabolic disorders, particularly diabetes, contribute to cognitive decline and the development of neurological diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
According to a press release, the partnership will facilitate large-scale studies, data exchange, and translational research. The goal is to develop strategies for early detection and prevention.
“Diabetes confers a significant excess risk for cognitive disorders,” stated Dr. V. Mohan, chairman of MDRF, citing a 2019 study. He further emphasized that cognitive impairment often goes undiagnosed in diabetic patients, highlighting the need for routine screening in diabetes clinics, with MDRF having already started screening last year for diabetic patients over the age of 60.
Dr. R.M. Anjana, president of MDRF, emphasized the importance of recognizing diabetes as a key risk factor in cognitive decline and dementia, and that the partnership will utilize multi-disciplinary expertise and diverse datasets to uncover early markers of brain aging in people with diabetes.
Dr. K.V.S. Hari, director of CBR, spoke about the center’s goal to predict the onset of cognitive decline on the basis of robust risk scores, diagnostics, and trajectory trackers, and to provide interventions based on apps, devices, lifestyle, and pharmacology.
The partnership will benefit from research and biomarkers developed by the UK DRI. Dr. Siddharthan Chandran, Director and Chief Executive of the UK DRI, spoke about the importance of an integrated approach, given the way metabolic diseases and the brain affect each other. Dr. Henrik Zetterberg, head of the Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry, University of Gothenburg, and Group Leader, UK DRI at UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, explained that the aim is to develop global, accessible, and affordable biomarker panels of relevance to most aspects of neurodegenerative disease.
According to S. Uthra, Senior Scientist at MDRF, cognitive health should be an integral part of holistic diabetes care. She cited data showing that cognitive decline increased with age, which the Healthy Ageing Clinic aims to combat by assessing factors such as memory using simple questionnaires in diabetic patients over the age of 60.
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