‘Transformative’: the UK lab working on a way to halt genetic type of dementia

Scientists Magda Sztyler (L) and Megan Donnelly working in the labs of AviadoBio, where its gene therapy targets a type of FTD known as FTD-GRN. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian

Behind the gleaming glass facade of an office block in east London’s Docklands, Dr Martina Esposito Soccoio is pipetting ribonucleic acid into test tubes.

Here, not far from Canary Wharf’s multinational banks, a British university spinout is working on a breakthrough treatment for a form of dementia that affects millions of people worldwide.