University of Tasmania, Australia

Frontotemporal dementia is the second most common form of dementia in the population and is characterized by progressive deterioration of behavior, personality and language with a relative sparing of memory. A proportion of FTD cases are associated with mutations in the microtubule associated protein tau, but until recently the causes of the remainder of FTD cases was unknown. Recently a number of proteins have been implicated in FTD and these proteins show that there are close links between the pathogenesis of FTD and motor neuron disease. However, the normal role of many of these proteins and the links to disease are still to be deciphered. We are investigating the normal roles of FTD associated proteins in development and aging in addition to their role in the pathology of disease with a particular emphasis on axonal and dendritic function.