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Alzheimer's accounts for nearly two-thirds of the 55 million people living with dementia worldwide. It costs us £25 billion a year, and that's expected to double by 2050. Professor Nick Fox is director of the Dementia Research Centre at UCL. He has been looking closely at this new research into Alzheimer's.

Back in November, researchers hailed the dawn of a new era of Alzheimer’s therapies. After decades of failure, a clinical trial finally confirmed that a drug, lecanemab, was able to slow cognitive decline in patients with early stages of the disease. The result may have been modest – a reduction in the decline in patients’ overall mental skills by 27% over 18 months – but it could not be more significant in the journey towards better understanding and treating the disease. Ian Sample speaks to Prof Nick Fox about the clinical trial results, if this could be the first of many new Alzheimer’s therapies, and whether we could one day see a cure.. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod