**Public description** This research demonstrates how a simple online VR-based videogame may provide an inexpensive, easy-to-use digital therapy for depression in younger people aged between 13 and 18, as a valid, effective and efficient ground-breaking alternative to existing gold standard treatments including antidepressant medication and cognitive-behavioural therapy. It uses carefully designed virtual environment navigation to directly elicit a brain response that antidepressant medication uses as a central premise to their efficacy, more effectively than any currently available therapy. It has been designed to substantially enhance accessibility, providing therapy as early as possible, perhaps long before the effects of the disease become a burden to the patient, their family and society as a whole, potentially increasing patient quality of life. Particularly those that are traditionally reluctant to seek help, such as those from BAME backgrounds. This project will create a playable VR version of the game and preclinically test with volunteers that have been NHS depression service users alongside healthy people to create a clinical test ready version of the game. The project will allow Ascentys to gain essential information to ensure: \*The game can be easily used by its intended patients \*Preclinically test the game with the intended end user populace to ascertain efficiency/usefulness. \*How the game can be best used to ensure positive disruptive impact within existing NHS pathways to substantially raise effectiveness and efficiency of rehabilitation of young people with depression and potential disease progression monitoring. This application enables Ascentys to access crucial expertise and facilities needed to explore the feasibility of this concept: \*Access to patient volunteers \*Clinical and academic expertise via PPI group experts \*Game design, development and testing expertise Presenting an ideal opportunity for a highly ambitious and capable young games research company to address a critical global health need through invaluable support and mentoring. Our project outlines a highly innovative depression treatment for children and adolescents using a digital health VR-videogame-based approach that is radically different to anything currently available and also potentially substantially more effective and efficient (in terms of cost, time and convenience needed to administer) including both anti-depressant medication and cognitive-behavioural therapy. The game could be a highly exportable, UK developed, world first highly innovative solution transforming the depression care pathway landscape internationally for this horrendous illness for all people, not just simply children that are affected.

This research demonstrates how a simple online web-based videogame (G:DATA; Game based Dementia Automated Test Algorithm) may provide an inexpensive, easy-to-use test that can spot the earliest signs of Alzheimer's Disease, well in advance of anything that currently exists. It uses carefully designed virtual environments that a player must navigate and by doing so directly assesses the first brain cells that are affected by Alzheimer's Disease, undetectable by existing techniques. G:DATA is designed to provide effective and timely concurrent screening and diagnostics, perhaps long before the effects of the disease become a burden to the patient, their family and society as whole, potentially increasing patient quality of life. This project will endeavour to create a playable version of G:DATA and test it with patients that have early and late-stage Alzheimer's Disease alongside healthy people in a clinical setting to prove G:DATA works and can effectively screen, diagnose and distinguish between these patient groups. The project will allow Ascentys to gain essential information to ensure: * G:DATA can be easily used by its intended patients * How G:DATA can be best used to ensure positive disruptive impact within existing NHS pathways to greatly raise effectiveness and efficiency of both screening and diagnosis for Alzheimer's patients and potential disease progression monitoring. This Smart application enables Ascentys to access crucial expertise and facilities needed to explore the feasibility of this concept, our consortium comprises of: * Durham University; Neuroscientific expertise; * Hywel Dda Hospitals Trust; Clinical expertise and access to patient volunteers, regulatory compliance and health economics insight; * Medipex (subcontractor); IP protection expertise. The project is highly innovative because existing methods of screening and diagnosing Alzheimer's-Disease are highly resource intensive and expensive in terms of clinical time, effort, burden and complexity (need for multiple tests). For the patients these tests are also highly invasive (Spinal puncture, blood, PET and MRI scans), obviously daunting and suffer from a substantially growing waiting list between initial GP screening and eventual hospital diagnosis. Our proposed G:DATA game remedies all of the shortcomings described above, providing a vastly more rapid, cheaper and convenient alternative, designed to greatly reduce clinician time and enhance accessibility to effective screening and diagnosis, identifying patients at scale needing timely care. G:DATA could potentially be a highly exportable UK developed solution transforming the Alzheimer's Disease care pathway landscape nationally and beyond for this horrendous condition and importantly also a first step in developing a ground-breaking effective treatment.