The Queensland Brain Institute at the University of Queensland has secured AU$2 million for research from the estate of Clem Jones, a former mayor of Brisbane.
The money will support work at the institute’s Centre for Ageing Dementia Research, Australia’s only dedicated centre for such research, the university said on 20 August.
News of the gift has prompted the advocacy group Alzheimer’s Australia to call on the federal government to put more cash into research to find treatment or a cure for the disease.
Currently, 51,000 Queenslanders are living with dementia, a number that will increase without a medical breakthrough, said Victoria Beedle of Alzheimer’s Australia.