Dementia Researcher Vodcast

Dementia Researcher Vodcast

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Dementia Researcher Vodcast episodes

  • Happy 200th: How UCL is Changing Dementia Research

    In this special episode, recorded to mark UCL's 200th birthday and released on World Alzheimer's Day, three UCL researchers working at very different ends of dementia research come together to talk about what the university has contributed, and where the field goes next.

    Professor Selina Wray hosts, joined by Dr Aygun Badalova, a neuropsychologist working on digital neurorehabilitation at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, Professor Tammaryn Lashley, Professor of Neuroscience and past president of the British Neuropathological Society, and Professor Andre Altmann, Professor of Biomedical Data Science and AI, who leads the COMBINE Lab.

    Their three approaches could hardly be further apart. Aygun works with people living with dementia and a therapy app built around photographs of the people who matter to them. Tammaryn works with donated post-mortem brain tissue and the pathology that no scan can yet see. Andre works with datasets large enough to assemble a disease timeline nobody has lived long enough to observe directly. The conversation moves between all three, taking in why no two brains with the same diagnosis look the same, what blood-based biomarkers can and cannot tell us yet, where non-drug interventions sit alongside the new anti-amyloid treatments, and what it actually takes to hold that breadth of work inside a single institution.

    This year's World Alzheimer's Month campaign is built around the idea that the earlier you know, the more you can do, and diagnosis runs through much of the discussion. Along the way there are some UCL landmarks worth knowing about, including the 23rd letter in a pile of replies to an Alzheimer's Society newsletter appeal and what it set in motion, Sea Hero Quest, the Lancet Commission's modifiable risk factors, the tau gene silencing trial, Insight 46, and the UK DRI. The episode closes on what each guest hopes we will find strange about dementia research by the time UCL turns 220.

    In this episode:

    • What two hundred years of UCL has actually contributed to dementia research, told through three very different kinds of work rather than a roll call.
    • Why each of the guests has stayed, and what their research would have lost elsewhere, from Queen Square Brain Bank and three thousand characterised brains to the Hawkes Institute sitting alongside the Dementia Research Centre.
    • How the full pipeline in one institution changes the questions people ask, with cells, tissue and clinic from the same individual, and neurologists now bringing cases to the lab rather than the other way round.
    • Where UCL has changed the field, including letter number 23 and the Jennings family, Sea Hero Quest, the Lancet Commission risk factors, TREM2, the tau gene silencing trial, Insight 46 and the UK DRI.
    • Diagnosis as the theme of World Alzheimer's Day, and what still stands in the way, from co-pathologies that no blood test can yet see to deciding who is suited to the new treatments.
    • What none of this can do inside one building, and why rare dementias, genetic risk and a therapy app all depend on people well beyond UCL.
    • Why disease modification and support for people living with dementia today are answering different questions, and the case for funding both.
    • What the guests want to look strange by UCL's 220th birthday, and what they are asking listeners to do now.

    --

    A transcript of this show, links and show notes and profile on all our guests are available on our website at https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk.

    If you prefer to watch rather than listen, you will find a video version of this podcast on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and on our website.

    Leave us a tip:

    https://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/support

    Follow us on social media:

    • https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/
    • https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/
    • https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunity
    • https://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher
    • https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.social

    Download and Register with our Community App:

    https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcher

    We gratefully acknowledge the support of our funders: Alzheimer’s Association, Race Against Dementia, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society, and the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

    The views and opinions expressed by guests in this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the producers, funders, or sponsors.

    Subscribe to our sister show 'Dementia Researcher The Blogs':

    https://podfollow.com/dementia-researcher-blogs

    56 min
  • XXplored - Why Women's Sleep Is Different

    Sleep, the menstrual cycle and women's brain health rarely line up the way people expect. Women report worse sleep than men, yet objective recordings often show them sleeping longer and spending more time in deep sleep, and nobody has fully explained the gap.

    Host Dr Laura Stankeviciute, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Gothenburg working on sleep and sex differences in brain ageing, is joined by Professor Christian Benedict, Professor of Pharmacology at Uppsala University and scientific spokesperson for the Swedish Sleep Research Society, and Dr Alana Brown, a postdoctoral fellow at the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest, whose research looks at how ovarian hormone loss changes sleep and memory.

    The conversation moves from sleep architecture through the four phases of the menstrual cycle, into why insomnia is three times more common in women from puberty onwards and why obstructive sleep apnea is so often missed when the textbook symptoms were written from male patients. There is a straight assessment of melatonin, magnesium and creatine along the way, and a case for treating sleep as part of the treatment rather than a symptom that will sort itself out.

    Key takeaways

    • The subjective and objective sleep paradox sits at the centre of the episode: women report worse sleep, but recordings often show longer total sleep time and more deep slow wave sleep than age-matched men.
    • Longer REM sleep latency in older women is raised as a possible early marker of brain vulnerability, with links to amyloid-beta and phosphorylated tau build-up.
    • Sleep does shift across the menstrual cycle, with the luteal phase most consistently linked to poorer sleep, but the guests push back on how certain social media makes this look.
    • HRT can ease vasomotor symptoms without fixing sleep, because years of failed nights build a psychological pattern that needs unlearning through CBT for insomnia.
    • Obstructive sleep apnea in women often presents without the loud snoring and witnessed apneas of the male picture, and prevalence climbs after menopause until the sex gap narrows.
    • The episode argues sleep is a physiological need rather than a lifestyle factor, and belongs inside the intervention rather than being left to improve on its own.

    --

    A transcript of this show, links and show notes and profile on all our guests are available on our website at https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk.

    If you prefer to watch rather than listen, you will find a video version of this podcast on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and on our website.

    Leave us a tip:

    https://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/support

    Follow us on social media:

    • https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/
    • https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/
    • https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunity
    • https://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher
    • https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.social

    Download and Register with our Community App:

    https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcher

    We gratefully acknowledge the support of our funders: Alzheimer’s Association, Race Against Dementia, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society, and the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

    The views and opinions expressed by guests in this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the producers, funders, or sponsors.

    Subscribe to our sister show 'Dementia Researcher The Blogs':

    https://podfollow.com/dementia-researcher-blogs

    1 hr 4 min
  • Fellowship vs Lectureship: Which Is Right for You?

    Should you pursue a fellowship or apply for a lectureship? The choice is often framed as protected research time versus a permanent contract, but the reality is more complicated.

    Dr Fiona McLean hosts Dr Warren Donnellan from University of Liverpool, Dr Kamar Ameen-Ali from Teesside University, and Dr Sarah-Naomi James from University College London, to compare the jobs as they are actually experienced. They discuss teaching, hidden administration, research independence, institutional support, pay, promotion and what happens when funding ends. They also ask whether any academic role can now be considered secure, and share the questions candidates should ask before accepting a post.

    Their routes show that fellowships and lectureships are not separate tracks: teaching can strengthen a fellow's next move, lecturers can still win fellowships, and careers rarely follow the tidy sequence shown on a CV.

    In this episode:

    • What teaching-and-research and teaching-and-scholarship lectureships involve day to day
    • How fellowships create independence, and where institutional control still applies
    • Why teaching, administration and student support often consume more time than workload figures suggest
    • What happens when a fellowship ends, including tenure-track promises and the need for further funding
    • How salary bands, spine points and contribution points affect pay
    • Whether any academic role can now be considered secure
    • The interview questions that reveal expectations and departmental culture
    • Why teaching experience, mentorship and resilience can keep more than one career route open

    --

    A transcript of this show, links and show notes and profile on all our guests are available on our website at https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk.

    If you prefer to watch rather than listen, you will find a video version of this podcast on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and on our website.

    Leave us a tip:

    https://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/support

    Follow us on social media:

    • https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/
    • https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/
    • https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunity
    • https://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher
    • https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.social

    Download and Register with our Community App:

    https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcher

    We gratefully acknowledge the support of our funders: Alzheimer’s Association, Race Against Dementia, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society, and the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

    The views and opinions expressed by guests in this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the producers, funders, or sponsors.

    Subscribe to our sister show 'Dementia Researcher The Blogs':

    https://podfollow.com/dementia-researcher-blogs

    49 min
  • Changing the Course of Dementia: What Will Make the Biggest Difference?

    Changing the course of dementia depends entirely on where you are standing, and this panel is standing in four different places.

    Recorded in front of a live audience at the Alzheimer's Research UK Thames Valley Network Dementia Research Day 2026, Professor Emma Mead, Chief Scientific Officer at the ARUK Oxford Drug Discovery Institute, puts the question to four people who see the problem from very different ends: Associate Professor Sanjay Manohar, computational neuroscientist and lead of the Cognitive Disorders Clinic at the John Radcliffe; Professor Michele Hu, consultant neurologist at Oxford, who runs the 1,600 person Oxford Discovery Parkinson's cohort; Associate Professor Laura Winchester, bioinformatician in Oxford's Department of Psychiatry; and Peter Johnson, head of service at Dementia Oxfordshire. They cover precision diagnosis, adaptive trial design, blood biomarkers, exercise and diet, digital monitoring at home, and what patients say frightens them most, plus audience questions on genetic testing and the biomarker gap. It closes with a quick fire round where four specialists name four different priorities, and not one of them is a drug.

    Key takeaways

    • Of roughly 500 patients seen with Alzheimer's, only about 10 have typical Alzheimer's and nothing else. Everyone else carries a different combination, and that fingerprint matters now that treatments target specific molecules.
    • Until this year, getting a biological diagnosis meant a lumbar puncture, so around 70% of patients never had one. Blood markers change who gets tested, and raise the harder question of what you tell people afterwards.
    • Multi-arm multi-stage designs, borrowed from prostate cancer, run several treatment arms against one placebo group and force go or no go calls at 6 to 12 months. ACT-PD is doing it for Parkinson's.
    • In the exenatide trial the placebo group improved over two years simply from being in a trial. Regular contact and something to aim at has a measurable effect you have to design around.
    • Once the survival figure and the monitoring burden are explained, most patients conclude the new Alzheimer's therapies are not yet for them. What they ask for is quality of life, not longer decline.
    • Asked what would make the biggest impact, the panel chose home digital monitoring, opening up trial data after studies close, AI as a support for thinking, and joined up hospital and community care. Not one of them named a drug.

    --

    A transcript of this show, links and show notes and profile on all our guests are available on our website at https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk.

    If you prefer to watch rather than listen, you will find a video version of this podcast on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and on our website.

    Leave us a tip:

    https://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/support

    Follow us on social media:

    • https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/
    • https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/
    • https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunity
    • https://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher
    • https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.social

    Download and Register with our Community App:

    https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcher

    We gratefully acknowledge the support of our funders: Alzheimer’s Association, Race Against Dementia, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society, and the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

    The views and opinions expressed by guests in this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the producers, funders, or sponsors.

    Subscribe to our sister show 'Dementia Researcher The Blogs':

    https://podfollow.com/dementia-researcher-blogs

    48 min
  • XXplored - The Neuroscience of Motherhood

    Around 80% of women worldwide will become mothers, and pregnancy triggers the largest hormonal shift the body will ever experience. So what does it do to the brain, and does any of it last?

    In this episode of XXplored, host Dr Laura Stankeviciute, University of Gothenburg is joined by Dr Magdalena Martínez-García, Scientific Director of Maternal Health at the Ann S. Bowers Women's Brain Health Initiative, University of California Santa Barbara, and Dr Laura Pritschet, an NIH funded postdoctoral scholar at the University of Pennsylvania who leads the Maternal Brain Mapping Project.

    They get into the hormonal cascade that drives the whole process, what those widely reported grey matter reductions actually mean, and how one volunteer scanned 26 times from IVF to two years postpartum filled in the gap between before and after. They also take on baby brain, whether repeat pregnancies stack up in the brain, what the UK Biobank data hints at for later life dementia risk, the near total absence of miscarriage and stillbirth from this research, and where postpartum care falls short. Both guests are living through matrescence themselves while studying it, and they talk openly about what that has been like.

    Key takeaways

    • Pregnancy brings hormone surges into the hundreds and thousandfold, far beyond anything seen across the menstrual cycle, and sensitivity to those shifts matters more than the absolute levels.
    • Grey matter reductions across pregnancy are among the most replicable findings in neuroscience, and larger reductions are linked to stronger postpartum bonding rather than damage.
    • Follow-up work found some of those changes still present six years after birth, suggesting they may be long-lasting or permanent.
    • A second pregnancy produces the same pattern of change but less pronounced, and UK Biobank data suggests a trace of parity in the brain that levels off around four or five births.
    • Baby brain gets reframed rather than dismissed: subjective reports are real, objective differences are slight and temporary, and increased cognitive load may carry later advantages.
    • Miscarriage, stillbirth and abortion are almost entirely missing from maternal brain research, and both guests believe those women would be among the most motivated participants.
    • Research now treats the perinatal period as a neurological transition, but healthcare has not caught up, with a single six week check standing in for what should be ongoing postpartum care.

    --

    A transcript of this show, links and show notes and profile on all our guests are available on our website at https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk.

    If you prefer to watch rather than listen, you will find a video version of this podcast on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and on our website.

    Leave us a tip:

    https://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/support

    Follow us on social media:

    • https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/
    • https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/
    • https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunity
    • https://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher
    • https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.social

    Download and Register with our Community App:

    https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcher

    We gratefully acknowledge the support of our funders: Alzheimer’s Association, Race Against Dementia, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society, and the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

    The views and opinions expressed by guests in this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the producers, funders, or sponsors.

    Subscribe to our sister show 'Dementia Researcher The Blogs':

    https://podfollow.com/dementia-researcher-blogs

    1 hr 8 min
  • AAIC Day Four 2026 Highlights

    In this episode, we share highlights from the fourth day of the 2026 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC).

    Adam Smith chats with Dr Niying Li, Assistant Professor at the University of Georgia; Dr Natasha Anita, a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital; and Lillian Morgado, Research Coordinator at Georgia State University.

    The AAIC brings together researchers from all areas of research to share their work, theories and breakthroughs while exploring opportunities to accelerate work and elevate careers.

    Key topics

    • The practical barriers to delivering new anti-amyloid treatments
    • Rural and international inequalities in access to diagnosis and care
    • What p-tau217 could tell us about future cognitive decline
    • Promising results from new tau-targeting therapies
    • Behavioural and personality changes as possible early signs of neurodegeneration
    • Women’s brain health, inflammation and Alzheimer’s risk
    • The ethical and legal questions surrounding biomarker disclosure
    • Why research must include more countries and underrepresented populations

    Find out more about the conference at https://aaic.alz.org/ and on social media with #AAIC26

    --

    A transcript of this show, links and show notes and profile on all our guests are available on our website at https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk.

    If you prefer to watch rather than listen, you will find a video version of this podcast on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and on our website.

    Leave us a tip:

    https://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/support

    Follow us on social media:

    • https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/
    • https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/
    • https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunity
    • https://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher
    • https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.social

    Download and Register with our Community App:

    https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcher

    We gratefully acknowledge the support of our funders: Alzheimer’s Association, Race Against Dementia, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society, and the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

    The views and opinions expressed by guests in this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the producers, funders, or sponsors.

    Subscribe to our sister show 'Dementia Researcher The Blogs':

    https://podfollow.com/dementia-researcher-blogs

    1 hr 1 min
  • AAIC Day Three 2026 Highlights

    In this episode, we share highlights from the third day of the 2026 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC).

    Adam Smith chats with Cari Randa-Beaulieu, Provincial Coordinator, Knowledge Mobilization at the Alzheimer Society of British Columbia and Yukon; and Abrar AbuHamdia, a PhD candidate at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar.

    The AAIC brings together researchers from all areas of research to share their work, theories and breakthroughs while exploring opportunities to accelerate work and elevate careers.

    Key topics

    • Alzheimer's disease subtypes and precision medicine
    • Biomarkers and diagnostic accuracy in dementia
    • Microglia and neuroinflammation therapies
    • Global efforts in brain health promotion
    • Co-design and lived experience in research

    Find out more about the conference at https://aaic.alz.org/ and on social media with #AAIC26

    Note: We apologise for issues with the sound quality in the first part of this recording.

    --

    A transcript of this show, links and show notes and profile on all our guests are available on our website at https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk.

    If you prefer to watch rather than listen, you will find a video version of this podcast on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and on our website.

    Leave us a tip:

    https://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/support

    Follow us on social media:

    • https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/
    • https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/
    • https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunity
    • https://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher
    • https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.social

    Download and Register with our Community App:

    https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcher

    We gratefully acknowledge the support of our funders: Alzheimer’s Association, Race Against Dementia, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society, and the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

    The views and opinions expressed by guests in this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the producers, funders, or sponsors.

    Subscribe to our sister show 'Dementia Researcher The Blogs':

    https://podfollow.com/dementia-researcher-blogs

    46 min
  • AAIC Day Two 2026 Highlights

    In this episode, we share highlights from the second day of the 2026 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC).

    Adam Smith chats with Nathania from Universitas Airlangga in Indonesia, Dr Arezoo Talebzadeh from Ghent University in Belgium, and Dr Suelyn Koerich from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

    The AAIC brings together researchers from all areas of research to share their work, theories and breakthroughs while exploring opportunities to accelerate work and elevate careers.

    Key topics

    • Anti-amyloid immunotherapies and personalized medicine
    • Cultural sensitivity in dementia assessment
    • The role of environment and architecture in dementia care
    • Neuroinflammation and neuroprotective factors
    • Biomarker validation and minimally invasive testing
    • Impact of social determinants on dementia risk
    • Soundscape and sensory health in dementia management

    Find out more about the conference at https://aaic.alz.org/ and on social media with #AAIC26

    --

    A transcript of this show, links and show notes and profile on all our guests are available on our website at https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk.

    If you prefer to watch rather than listen, you will find a video version of this podcast on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and on our website.

    Leave us a tip:

    https://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/support

    Follow us on social media:

    • https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/
    • https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/
    • https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunity
    • https://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher
    • https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.social

    Download and Register with our Community App:

    https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcher

    We gratefully acknowledge the support of our funders: Alzheimer’s Association, Race Against Dementia, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society, and the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

    The views and opinions expressed by guests in this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the producers, funders, or sponsors.

    Subscribe to our sister show 'Dementia Researcher The Blogs':

    https://podfollow.com/dementia-researcher-blogs

    54 min
  • AAIC Day One 2026 Highlights

    In this episode, we share highlights from the first day of the 2026 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC).

    Adam Smith chats with Sarah Graef from Rush University Medical Center and Muthia Huda Islami from the National Brain Centre Hospital Mahar Mardjono in Jakarta.

    The AAIC brings together researchers from all areas of research to share their work, theories and breakthroughs while exploring opportunities to accelerate work and elevate careers.

    Key topics

    • Biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease
    • Genetic epidemiology in diverse populations
    • Lifestyle interventions and dementia prevention
    • Innovative drug delivery methods for neurodegenerative diseases
    • Global research collaborations and underrepresented populations

    Find out more about the conference at https://aaic.alz.org/ and on social media with #AAIC26

    --

    A transcript of this show, links and show notes and profile on all our guests are available on our website at https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk.

    If you prefer to watch rather than listen, you will find a video version of this podcast on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and on our website.

    Leave us a tip:

    https://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/support

    Follow us on social media:

    • https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/
    • https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/
    • https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunity
    • https://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher
    • https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.social

    Download and Register with our Community App:

    https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcher

    We gratefully acknowledge the support of our funders: Alzheimer’s Association, Race Against Dementia, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society, and the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

    The views and opinions expressed by guests in this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the producers, funders, or sponsors.

    Subscribe to our sister show 'Dementia Researcher The Blogs':

    https://podfollow.com/dementia-researcher-blogs

    50 min
  • Relay Podcast - Clinical Trials Advancement and Methods PIA 2026

    Welcome to the seventh season of the Dementia Researcher X ISTAART PIA Relay Podcast. Across six episodes, leading early career and senior researchers hand the mic from one ISTAART PIA to the next, giving you an honest, peer-to-peer tour of where dementia research is actually heading, from wearables and biomarkers to policy and trial design, in the run-up to AAIC.

    Series closer, and the relay comes full circle: Carla Abdelnour, who hosted episode one, returns as the guest. Carla is a clinician scientist in Barcelona and incoming Chair of the ISTAART Clinical Trials Advancement and Methods PIA, working on mixed neurodegenerative disease, particularly Lewy body and Alzheimer's pathology together. With host Sindhuja Tirumalai Govindarajan she explains why co-pathology is so common and what it means for treatment: does someone with both alpha-synuclein and Alzheimer's pathology respond to an anti-amyloid drug the same way as someone without? They discuss why she leans on fluid biomarkers, the wish for a synuclein PET tracer, and how trials might stratify or include people by co-pathology. Carla makes a useful point for anyone designing research, that clinical trial methods translate straight to observational studies, and previews the CTAM PIA's AAIC programme, including a panel and featured session on global representation in trials.

    Takeaways

    • Mixed pathology is common, and co-occurring alpha-synuclein and Alzheimer's pathology may change how people respond to treatment.
    • Trials could stratify or include people by co-pathology, but alpha-synuclein is currently detectable only in CSF, which limits that.
    • Fluid biomarkers offer the specificity to track different proteinopathies and, potentially, response to treatment.
    • Clinical trial design transfers straight to observational research: the same inclusion criteria, outcomes and sample-size thinking.
    • Global representation in trials is a live priority, with a CTAM panel launching at AAIC.

    --

    The Alzheimer’s Association International Society to Advance Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment (ISTAART) convenes the global Alzheimer’s and dementia science community. Members share knowledge, fuel collaboration and advance research to find more effective ways to detect, treat and prevent Alzheimer’s and other dementias. Professional Interest Areas (PIA) are an assembly of ISTAART members with common subspecialties or interests.

    There are currently 30 PIAs covering a wide range of interests and fields, from Neuroimaging to Diversity and Disparities and everything in between.

    Find out more at https://istaart.alz.org/

    --

    A transcript of this show, links and show notes and profile on all our guests are available on our website at https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk.

    If you prefer to watch rather than listen, you will find a video version of this podcast on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and on our website.

    Leave us a tip:

    https://dementia-researcher.captivate.fm/support

    Follow us on social media:

    • https://www.instagram.com/dementia_researcher/
    • https://www.facebook.com/Dementia.Researcher/
    • https://www.twitter.com/demrescommunity
    • https://www.linkedin.com/company/dementia-researcher
    • https://bsky.app/profile/dementiaresearcher.bsky.social

    Download and Register with our Community App:

    https://www.onelink.to/dementiaresearcher

    We gratefully acknowledge the support of our funders: Alzheimer’s Association, Race Against Dementia, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society, and the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

    The views and opinions expressed by guests in this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the producers, funders, or sponsors.

    Subscribe to our sister show 'Dementia Researcher The Blogs':

    https://podfollow.com/dementia-researcher-blogs

    34 min

About Dementia Researcher Vodcast

From the publisher's feed

A biweekly podcast for early career researchers, bringing together fantastic guests to discuss their research, careers + much more.

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