Scientists use live human brain tissue to speed up hunt for dementia cure

Exclusive: British team exposed live cells to toxic proteins to gather rare insight into how dementia develops

Scientists have used living human brain tissue to mimic the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia, in a breakthrough that will accelerate the hunt for a cure.

In a world first, a British team successfully exposed healthy brain tissue from living NHS patients to a toxic form of a protein linked to Alzheimer's - taken from patients who died from the disease - to show how it damages connections between brain cells in real time.