Expert comment from Professor Alan Chalmers

For Dementia Action Week, WMG at the University of Warwick, together with Superlunary Labs, are doubling their efforts to develop a low-cost, non-intrusive method for the early screening of Alzheimer’s disease using a simple flavour test which can be undertaken as part of a regular health check-up by a nurse, at a pharmacy or community centre.

The test can help diagnose the beginnings of Alzheimer's years before symptoms of memory loss through a loss of taste or smell.

Scientists at WMG are looking to get data from at least 1000 people before aiming to roll the screening out nationwide, potentially as early as next year. If you want to take part in the trial, and can get to the University of Warwick campus, contact Alan.Chalmers@warwick.ac.uk to be part of the future of medicine.

Professor Alan Chalmers commented: “Working with MPs and their constituency offices we will be collecting more data across the country to significantly enlarge our dataset of people’s flavour perception ability. This dataset, together with AI and MRI scans, will enable us to validate our screening method. Once validated we will be able to roll out the method widely, hopefully as early as next year.

"New drugs that slow disease progression down offer real hope to people living with Alzheimer’s Disease, but crucially the disease needs early diagnosis for these drugs to be most effective. One might have the disease many years before failing a memory test, the current means for diagnosing Alzheimer’s Disease.”

One of Europe’s largest science festivals is coming to town between September 10th and 13th.

With a schedule comprising more than 100 free events, activities and performances, the British Science Festival will “transform the region into a celebration of science and culture”.

The festival will feature talks from a selection of WMG experts, including Erik Kampert - Senior Research Fellow, Dave Greenwood – Professor of Advanced Propulsion Systems, Mark Williams – Professor of Metrology and Alan Chalmers – Professor of Visualisation.

Held in partnership with the University of Warwick, the programme highlights local strength in digital technologies, smart cities and the future of energy and healthcare.

There’s a special emphasis on the fun, thought-provoking, and societal aspects of science to show how it’s not just confined to laboratories, but something that’s all around us.

Plus, there will be a special filming of The Sky at Night: Question Time with Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock and Professor Chris Lintott.

Other highlights include interactive experiences like a live 3-D psychedelic show and festival carpool in a driverless pod, discussions on how ‘gaming becomes gambling’, how AI could revolutionise cancer treatment, and how to tackle food poverty with food writer Jack Monroe.

Not to mention, a mud kitchen and tea-blending for adults and a takeover of Coventry’s FarGo Village with comedy, artistic workshops and an escape room.

Book here.

WMG doctoral graduate, Pinar Satilmis has received a Faculty of Science Doctoral Thesis Award for her PhD project “High Fidelity Sky Models”.

Pinar’s thesis, “High Fidelity Sky Models” involved investigating innovative ways to simulate light, to accurately replicate real world lighting and cloud illumination in virtual environments. Pinar investigated a number of different methods including generating animated virtual environments to model changes in skylight in real time and using machine learning to predict light values.

Professor Alan Chalmers has been awarded a prestigious Tartessos Award from the Spanish Society of Virtual Archaeology for his ‘pioneering work and life-long contribution to the field of Digital Cultural Heritage’.

The Spanish Society of Virtual Archaeology is a non-profit scientific association with the aim of combining all professionals from different disciplinary areas related to archaeology, cultural heritage and new technologies.

Professor Chalmers was presented with the award at the Digital Heritage 2015 international conference in Grenada last year.