"World-leading" researcher Professor Susanne van Veluw announced as Group Leader at vascular dementia centre

We are thrilled to announce the appointment of Professor Susanne van Veluw, a new Group Leader at the BHF-UK DRI Centre for Vascular Dementia Research (CVDR). The £9M joint centre is the UK’s flagship investment in vascular dementia research, uniting leading researchers in the field.

Professor van Veluw is currently Associate Professor of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston (USA), where her lab investigates the links between cerebral small vessel disease and neurodegeneration.

Her research focuses on cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), a condition in which the protein amyloid beta accumulates within the walls of the blood vessels of the brain, impacting the structure and function of the small vessels.

CAA is one of the leading causes of haemorrhagic stroke (bleeding in the brain due to the rupture of a blood vessel), and a significant contributor to cognitive impairment and dementia. It’s estimated that about 80 per cent of people with a clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s will have CAA in their brains.

Devastating condition

Professor Bryan Williams, our Chief Scientific and Medical Officer, said:

“We are looking forward to Susanne joining the BHF-UKDRI Centre for Vascular Dementia Research in September. The world-leading knowledge of cerebral small vessel disease she brings will be a valuable addition to the centre.  

“Cerebral amyloid angiopathy is a little-known condition, but its effects are devastating to patients and their families. Susanne’s work to understand CAA will take us a step closer to treatments that can slow or prevent this potentially devastating condition.” 

Susanne’s Translational CAA Research Lab will relocate from Boston to Edinburgh to join the CVDR from September 2025. The team will focus on understanding how disease progression occurs in CAA, to identify opportunities for early intervention and treatment.

Having completed a PhD at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, focused on small vessel disease, Professor van Veluw moved to Boston for her postdoctoral studies. There, she first worked with Professor Steven Greenberg, who pioneered research into CAA, before she set up her independent lab.

"Thrilled to be joining"

Professor van Veluw said:

“Our team and I are thrilled to be joining such a strong and collaborative vascular neuroscience research community at the UK DRI and in Edinburgh more broadly. It’s a wonderful opportunity to come up with new ideas and complementary approaches to our questions, and to contribute to ongoing research with our expertise.

“I’m also looking forward to help raise CAA awareness in the UK in partnership with the International CAA Association and local patient communities – I know there’s already some great work being done in this area, so we are excited to join those existing efforts to further our understanding of this debilitating disease.”

Professor David Attwell, CVDR Centre Director, said:

“It’s great to welcome Susanne van Veluw, and her outstanding expertise on CAA, to the Centre for Vascular Dementia Research. She will join a group of 7 other scientists studying diverse aspects of Vascular Dementia in this Centre, which will formally be launched this year.

“Investment by the British Heart Foundation and by the UK Dementia Research Institute in this Centre is aimed at developing an understanding of, and eventually therapies for, vascular dementia.”

Find out more about our vascular dementia research