John T. O’Brien

My research interests include the role of biomarkers, especially MRI, SPECT and PET imaging, in the differential and early diagnosis of dementia, including identifying those ‘at risk’ of future cognitive decline and developing markers of onset and progression of disease. These imaging biomarkers are being applied to cohorts of patients with Alzheimer’s disease, Mild Cognitive Impairment, Lewy Body dementia, Vascular Cognitive impairment and those at risk. My other main research interest is in late-life depression, especially the role of vascular and inflammatory factors in precipitating and perpetuating depression in late-life and the ability of vascular interventions to improve or prevent depressive and cognitive symptoms. I am also the NIHR Clinical Research Network National Specialty Lead for Dementia and a member of several Clinical Guideline groups (e.g. NICE 2018). Our group undertakes a number of multimodal MR, ligand PET and MEG studies, longitudinal clinical and e-record studies and we also carry out a number of clinical studies in dementia, including trials of pharmacological and non-pharmacological management.