Abstract

With an ageing global population, there is an urgent need to identify effective strategies to maintain brain health across the life course and therein minimise the risk of age-related neurodegenerative disorders reaching a severe stage which may manifest as dementia. An increasing body of evidence indicates that nutrition is a modifiable lifestyle factor that can promote healthy brain ageing and reduce dementia risk. However, at present, little is known about which dietary patterns, foods and food bioactives influence brain function during ageing, and more research is required to identify at-risk individuals and population subgroups who are most likely to benefit from future nutritional intervention intended to promote healthier brain ageing. This article introduces the newly established Medical Research Council-funded NuBrain consortium, the vision of which is to provide a step change in research in the area by developing novel approaches and techniques to further understand the complex interactions between diet and brain health and how we can support appropriate behaviour changes in the population. NuBrain will form a new, sustainable and internationally field-leading research consortium with multidisciplinary and complementary areas of expertise to address the fundamental research challenges in this area.