The brain takes as long as two decades to reach its full maturity but maintains a remarkable ability to adapt it structure and functions to changing patterns of experience and use.  It is "turned on" and active every moment of our lives, monitoring our internal functions and the external environment. However, the continuous "burning" of energy, activation of responses to environmental pathogens and toxins and consequences of poor lifestyle choices all age the brain.  Aspects of this aging can promote late life diseases of the brain such as Alzheimer's disease.

However, exciting new science - important elements of which are being pursued here at Imperial College - is beginning to make clear both how to limit these damaging exposures and promote greater resilience of the brain to aging.

Professor Paul Matthews trained as a clinician scientist at the University of Oxford and Stanford University, USA, and has pioneered applications of groundbreaking clinical imaging technologies, founding two internationally leading research imaging centres, both to accelerate drug development and in the clinic. Paul was awarded an OBE in 2008 for his services to neuroscience, and in 2014 was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences.