RESEARCHERS at a Hampshire university have been given a huge funding boost to help pioneering studies to combat dementia.

A trio of researchers at the University of Southampton received £200,000 from Alzheimer’s Research UK, which will be vital to help them gain a deeper understanding of the condition, which affects more than 18,000 people across Hampshire.

Dr Roxana Carare, of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Southampton, will use the investment to upgrade the state-of-the-art microscopy suite.

Meanwhile, Dr Diego Gomez-Nicola, in Biological Sciences, will also get funds for a new pilot project looking at the protective coating on nerve cells and whether they are damaged in dementia patients.

It will also help lecturer in neuroscience Dr Katrin Deinhardt carry out a PhD scholarship, where her project will focus on the protein tau, which is known to be a factor in several forms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr Laura Phipps, science communications manager at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “We are delighted to be supporting such a diverse array of research in Southampton.

“Dementia research is desperately underfunded. and with the rising numbers of people affected by the condition, we need projects such as these to help us to understand and defeat it.”