Anthony Cook PhD

“The collective approach to childhood dementia, and the change to considering dementia as a lifespan disease, will enable large banks of knowledge and expertise to be leveraged for the benefit of patients.”

Associate Professor Anthony (Tony) Cook is head of the Stem Cell Models Group at the Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre, University of Tasmania. Here, he leads and collaborates on projects utilising human pluripotent stem cell cultures and CRISPR/Cas gene editing to study diseases causing neurodegeneration and dementia in children and adults.

The goals of the Stem Cell Models Group are to understand how genes that cause or increase risk of neurodegenerative disease affect the function of brain cells, and how that knowledge can guide pre-clinical development and testing of new therapeutics. Tony’s childhood dementia research has a particular focus on CLN3 (juvenile Batten) disease and other lysosomal disorders (e.g. Niemann-Pick disease, Tay-Sachs disease), that the group studies alongside neurodegenerative diseases affecting adults. Through studying diseases that cause dementia in adults and children in parallel, Tony hopes his research will help inspire new ideas regarding treatment strategies with potential to benefit many people and our societies.

Read more about the members of our Scientific and Medical Advisory Committee.