Led by Prof Barry Halliwell from NUS Medicine Department of Biochemistry, and A/Prof Christopher Chen and Dr Mitchell Lai (both NUS Pharmacology) from the Memory, Ageing and Cognition Centre at NUHS, a group of scientists has restarted a clinical trial to look at whether supplementing one’s diet with ergothioneine – a compound found mainly in mushrooms – can help prevent or delay cognitive impairment and dementia, after they found that low levels of ergothioneine in the blood correlate with an increased risk of developing cognitive issues.