The PROTECT Team

Professor Clive Ballard

Professor of Age-Related Diseases; Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Dean of the University of Exeter Medical School, UK

Clive specialises in the psychiatry of older adults. Across his career his research has ranged from prevention of dementia, exploring biological mechanisms and drug discovery through to understanding the needs of people with more severe dementia living in care homes and the overuse and harms of anti-psychotic medication in these individuals. He developed the PROTECT study to drive forward research into prevention and risk reduction. Clive has published over 200 research papers including multiple clinical trials, and has played a major role in changing dementia care policy in the UK and further afield.

Dr Anne Corbett

Associate Professor in Dementia Research, University of Exeter Medical School

Anne is the academic lead for the PROTECT study at the University of Exeter. Her research focuses on cognitive health in ageing and how dementia might be prevented in older adults. She has a wide portfolio of dementia research ranging from online studies into risk reduction, drug discovery, clinical trials and care home research. She has published over 80 research papers and has authored leading clinical guidance on dementia care.

Byron Creese

Senior Research Fellow, University of Exeter Medical School

Byron is a research psychologist whose work focuses on understanding biology, clinical consequences and treatment of neuropsychiatric symptoms (e.g. hallucinations, suspicious thoughts, depression) occurring in later life and dementia. He has almost ten years' experience in the psychological assessment of neuropsychiatric symptoms in neurodegenerative disease. A major focus of his work is the application of genomic data to understand the etiology of these symptoms in later life and dementia but he has also worked on a number of clinical trials of psychological and pharmacological treatments. Byron oversees the Genomics data of PROTECT.

Professor Dag Aarsland

Professor and Head of Department of Old Age Psychiatry at IoPPN

Dag Aarsland MD, PhD, is Professor and Head of Department of Old Age Psychiatry at IoPPN, Visiting professor at the Alzheimer's Disease Research Centre at Karolinska Institutet and Research Director at Centre for Age-Related Medicine, Stavanger University Hospital. As a psychiatrist he has worked as a senior consultant in geriatric psychiatry for most of his career. His main research interest is the neurospychiatric aspects of patients with neurodegenerative diseases, in particular translational studies on cognitive decline in Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies.

Ellie Pickering

PROTECT Project Manager, University of Exeter Medical School

Ellie joined the PROTECT study at the University of Exeter in 2017 as the project coordinator and became the project manager in 2021. She is also managing a related clinical trial of Vitamin D supplements. She worked in financial administration at the Institute for Public Policy Research before earning a master’s degree in taxonomy and biodiversity from Imperial College. She joined the University of Exeter in 2013 and has held administrative/management roles in student Wellbeing Services and at the College of Medicine and Health.

Megan Richards

PROTECT Study Research Coordinator, University of Exeter Medical School

Megan has been working with the PROTECT study team since 2019 where she began work in an administrative role for The HealthyMinds Registry, a study related to PROTECT operating in the United States. Megan is now the Research Coordinator for the HealthyMinds Registry and the PROTECT study. Megan joined the University of Exeter in 2019 after a career break following earning a master’s degree in Transplantation Immunology from Cambridge University.

Kelly Hodge

PROTECT Study Administrator, University of Exeter

Kelly joined the PROTECT Study team in 2020. Kelly holds a degree in Law with Business Studies from the University of Plymouth. Prior to joining the University of Exeter, she worked as an Information Specialist at the University of Plymouth and as a Collections Librarian at UWE Bristol.