Journal of Alzheimers Disease & Parkinsonism
Open Access

Abstract

Biography

Celeste A de Jager, University of Cape Town (UCT) worked in the fields of neuropsychology and dementia research for 14 years at the University of Oxford, UK. She was the Principal Investigator in studies with Merck, plc to identify sensitive neuropsychological tests as outcomes for AD treatment trials; and for the Cognitive Archaeology collaborative study with Dr Peter Garrard from St George’s University, London, on linguistic markers to predict dementia. She designed the cognitive and clinical assessment aspects of the VITACOG trial of B vitamins and omega-3 for those with MCI. Latter work involved novel brain imaging studies for predictive markers of Alzheimers disease. She obtained a British Academy award for community screening for cognitive impairment in India. She returned to UCT in South Africa in 2012 as a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Epidemiology and obtained a WUN award to examine nutrition and cognition in collaboration with Dementia SA, and researchers from Leeds and Sheffield University. She held the interim South African Research Chairs Initiative in Clinical Neurosciences from 2013-2014 and piloted dementia screening tools for Xhosa-speaking elders in order to conduct a large dementia prevalence study in a low-income community. She represented OPTIMA as a member of the European Alzheimer’s Disease Consortium (EADC) and was an academic expert on the Nutrition and Mental Performance task force with the Institute of Life Sciences-Europe. She now leads the design of the assessment and recommendation system for stuward.com for family carers of people with dementia. She is an Editorial Board member for Journal of Alzheimers Disease and a reviewer for many medical journals.