Centre for Chronic Diseases of Ageing

Welcome to the Woolcock’s Centre for Chronic Diseases of Ageing.

Established in July 2022, we will be undertaking research into chronic health conditions common in ageing, including sleep apnea and other sleep disorders, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and emphysema. We will explore how these conditions relate to cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia.

The dramatic increase in life expectancy over the past 50 years has been a triumph of medicine. But it has also led to an increase in the rates of chronic and degenerative disease.

Through our Centre, we will discover new approaches for early diagnosis and treatment of age-related sleep and respiratory disorders and translate those discoveries into world-best clinical practice.

Our unique team combines our sleep and respiratory expertise under the one roof. The Centre builds on the strengths of our research centres for sleep and chronobiology and emphysema.

The Woolcock Centre for Chronic Diseases of Ageing has been made possible through the generous support of our donors, the Ernest Heine Family Foundation and Mrs Janice Gibson.

What we do

We have two key research streams:

1) Fighting cognitive decline in the ageing population

We will develop pioneering new methods to investigate brain ageing to diagnose early signs of disease and to investigate how sleep disorders and COPD contribute to cognitive decline.

We will work across the fields of sleep and chronobiology, lung physiology, respiratory technology, cell biology, clinical management, epidemiology, and data science to identify predictors of cognitive decline and dementia risk.

2) Improving the brain health of older people with chronic sleep and respiratory disorders

We will test innovative therapies including neuromodulation during sleep and anti-inflammatory drugs to improve brain health and potentially slow cognitive decline.

Our research will allow us to identify risk factors for cognitive decline much earlier, use individualised interventions, and develop innovative therapies tested in our new specialised Clinic for patients with COPD and sleep disorders.