CHeBA Publication Awards

The highly competitive Inaugural CHeBA Publication Awards were open to all first authors who had papers published between 28th February 2019 and 31st October 2020. The awards aim to recognise excellent performance, quality research and outstanding papers published by CHeBA researchers. Winners were announced virtually.

Mary Revelas Winner - Student Category

Revelas M, Thalamuthu A, et al. Exceptional Longevity and Polygenic Risk for Cardiovascular Health. Genes 2020,

10(3): 227

DOI: 10.3390/genes10030227 Jess Lo Winner - Professional Staff Category

Lo J, Crawford J, et al. Association of Prediabetes and Type 2 Diabetes With Cognitive Function After Stroke.

Stroke 2020, 51: 1640-1646

DOI: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.119.028428

Dr Jiyang Jiang Winner - Early Career Category

Jiang J, Liu T, et al. Stronger bilateral functional connectivity of the frontoparietal control network in near-centenarians and centenarians without dementia.

NeuroImage 2020, 215: 116855

DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116855 Dr Karen Mather Winner - Mid Career Category

Armstrong N, Mather A, et al. Common Genetic Variation Indicates Separate Causes for Periventricular and Deep

White Matter Hyperintensities. Stroke 2020, 51: 2111-2121

DOI: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.119.027544

Dr Adith Mohan

Our Community

"Despite the pandemic, the dementia curve remains unabated. Quality research remains the answer."

Richard Grellman AM Spokesman, The Dementia Momentum

The Dementia Momentum – Spokesman’s Report

There are very few industries that have not been significantly impacted by the global pandemic, with 2020 fundraising and engagement plans for The Dementia Momentum no exception to the rule.

All of us have had to adapt to life with COVID-19 - uncertainty, inability to plan with confidence, financial implications and of course loss of freedom to travel, domestically and internationally. For those living with dementia, these losses are generally beyond their awareness. Many of the folk living with this disease are often described as ‘living in the moment’, and thus daily experiences that we live with such as emails, text messages, tax obligations, changing weather, news updates, politics and even mundane matters like shopping and what to prepare for dinner, quickly become matters of no import - if indeed any awareness of such things even exists.

COVID-19 has of course had a material impact on those in residential care and their loved ones. Either no visitation or visits on a restricted basis for the last 12 months have understandably become the norm. This has obvious implications for residents and their families alike, especially at special times like Christmas.

In our own case, our 3 adult children and 7 grandchildren were so looking forward to seeing my wife Suellen on Christmas Day, only to be denied by a last-minute lock-down. As with many others in the same situation as my family, so we endure....! The reality is that despite the pandemic, the dementia curve remains unabated. It continues to affect 50 million people globally and is predicted to almost triple by 2050. Quality research remains the answer and following an enormously successful year with The Dementia Momentum in 2019, we had to divert our attention away from partnerships with KPMG Sydney and ARIA Restaurant Sydney who generously host our annual events and look to other means to support CHeBA’s research and remain engaged with you, our community. All events across Australia were suspended indefinitely, which also meant we had to shelve any plans to run Wipeout Dementia; a fundraiser which had built incredible momentum over the last five years and borne witness to the most successful event to date in November 2019, with the property industry raising over $210,000. Last year also saw us host the first ever intergenerational-event, with many senior corporates involving their children in their quest to support critical dementia research. Richard Grellman AM is Chairman of IPH Limited, FBR Limited and Spokesman for The Dementia Momentum at the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA).

I was humbled with the response to our 2020 Wipeout Dementia Appeal, with significant donations made despite the lack of face-to-face interaction. For this support, which certainly impacted the retention of researchers at CHeBA, I thank you. I would also like to extend enormous thanks to the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation, whose 5-year funding for The Dementia Momentum will come to its conclusion in 2021. This major grant has allowed for extraordinary inroads to be made across two major consortia at CHeBA which are identifying common risk factors for dementia and cognitive decline as well as facilitating a better understanding of the determinants of vascular contributions to cognitive disorders and striving to help improve the diagnosis and treatment of vascular cognitive disorders. A number of research papers were published in high impact journals this year with substantial media impact, largely as a result of this funding support from VFFF.

As we all look forward to 2021 and the possibility of reinstating our annual events, I sincerely thank you all for your continued support of The Dementia Momentum initiative but also specifically of the global dementia challenge, that we will continue to confront long after COVID-19 has passed.

Richard Grellman AM