Blog: The Brain Dialogues, filtered by tag: Alzheimer's Disease

HEIDI DOUGLASS | h.douglass@unsw.edu.au In 1945 when Australians were celebrating the end of the Second World War, a baby girl was born west of Sydney, in Granville. Her parents named her Jean.   65 years later and with three loving sons, seven grandchildren and more than 50 years of a strong and happy marriage to husband Len Nesbitt, Jean was diagnosed with vascular dementia – the second most common form of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease.  On Friday, 11 September, just over 10 years since she was first diagnosed, Jean’s family said their loving goodbyes at a beautiful memorial held… Read More

For Dr Anne Poljak, finding the mechanisms underlying cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia and identifying disease biomarkers are fundamental not only for a better understanding of how the brain works in health and disease, but also for treatment and management of diseases and disorders which affect memory. Understanding disease mechanisms is an essential piece of the puzzle to determine causes of cognitive decline and discover new treatment approaches.   How did you get into researching the ageing brain? When I finished my undergraduate studies, I had an… Read More

Dr Rebecca Koncz’s research explores the pathophysiological mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease, particularly amyloid accumulation, as a hallmark feature of the disease. Utilising data collected from CHeBA’s Older Australian Twins Study, she is attempting to answer the classic “nature vs nurture” question – specifically, what proportion of amyloid burden is attributable to genes, and what proportion is determined by environmental, or modifiable, risk factors.   How did you get into researching the ageing brain? I’ve always had an interest in the brain sciences, having completed a major in… Read More

When we consider frontline health care, we often forget the role that research plays in guiding the practice and tools available to clinicians and carers. CHeBA’s researchers are on the cusp of the latest findings regarding healthy brain ageing, with long-term impact as a primary motivator. Dr Nady Braidy shares his drive to create longstanding impact by translating research into practice.   How did you get into researching the ageing brain? I started with a Bachelor of Medical Science. My aim was to get into medicine. I was majoring in Pharmacology and Physiology, and my first project… Read More

DR ANNE-NICOLE CASEY How people interact with and perceive one another, and each person’s thoughts and feelings about the quality of those interactions and relationships, can affect physical and mental health and well-being. Social cognitive function, which broadly refers to the way our brain processes social information, is recognised as an important marker of how efficiently our brain processes information in general1. Interestingly, the number of individuals with whom a person interacts frequently is associated with their short-term memory capacity2. Some studies report that having larger… Read More

DARREN LIPNICKI The Cohort Studies of Memory in an International Consortium (COSMIC) is a collaborative effort of researchers from around the world. We identify important topics for research, and share data from longitudinal, population-based studies of cognitive ageing to create a better understanding of what causes dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. Our current project is investigating whether there are differences between countries in how fast cognitive functioning declines in older individuals. Such differences could help explain why the prevalence of dementia varies around the… Read More

PROFESSOR HENRY BRODATY MB, BS PROFESSOR CLARE COLLINS This article was originally published on 14 October 2016 in The Conversation. Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, is a growing problem worldwide. There are 350,000 people with dementia in Australia and this is set to rise to 900,000 by 2050. There is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease. So if “coffee really can help to prevent dementia”, as a headline by the Daily Mail last week suggested, that would be amazing. This is why the study on which the headline was basedreceived so much interest. It was reported on by… Read More

HEIDI DOUGLASS | h.douglass@unsw.edu.au At the age of just 61, a mother of three adoring children and seven beautiful grandchildren was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.  Her specialist physician was CHeBA Co-Director Professor Henry Brodaty.  A mere five years on and this loving Mum, Suellen Grellman,  is now living in a high care nursing home and requires assistance with everything that she does, including eating and drinking.  Understandably, Suellen’s daughter, Sarah Holmes, has found this journey tough.  “Watching my vibrant, confident, intelligent Mum deal and… Read More

This article was originally published in the The Conversation on 28 July 2016 Anyone who has ever visited a doctor’s office is familiar with the use of blood tests for the diagnosis of various diseases. Because blood comes in contact with all organs of the body, it carries markers of the health of these organs. It is an easily accessible body fluid, can be drawn repeatedly to follow the progress of a disease and, in most cases, blood tests are relatively inexpensive. It is therefore not surprising news that a possible blood test for dementia, in particular Alzheimer’s disease, gets much… Read More

HEIDI DOUGLASS | h.douglass@unsw.edu.au Failure to use a standardised approach is limiting the effectiveness of research into whether microRNAs (miRNAs) can be used as a blood biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease.  Researchers at the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA) at UNSW Australia conducted a systematic review investigating research into miRNAs as potential biomarkers for early diagnosis and found that few studies assessed the same miRNAs and where they did, methodological differences between the studies made it hard to validate findings. The research, led by CHeBA PhD student Dr… Read More