Welcome to the 29th episode of The Brain Podcast - the official podcast of the journals Brain and Brain Communications. 

This episode features a discussion with first author of the Brain article entitled: Distinct transcriptional changes distinguish efficient and poor remyelination in multiple sclerosis

We are joined by Alida Chen for an interesting discussion into detecting transcriptional changes that may identify efficient remyelination in multiple sclerosis. Using brain bank donor tissue, the authors examine donors who show efficient remyelination compared with those who had poorly remyelinating lesions. They discuss interesting findings around the epithelial–mesenchymal transition pathway as well as the MTORC1 signalling pathway. Further, the team discusses how these findings may translate to in vivo understanding of efficient remyelination in patients with MS as well as other experimental models that may help elucidate this.  

Check out the full article on the Brain website as part of the June 2025 issue: https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awae414

This episode was co-hosted, edited and produced by Chaitra Sathyaprakash and Andreas Thermistocleous, edited and produced by Chaitra and Xin You Tai, co-produced by Antonia Johnston, original music by Ammar Al-Chalabi.

Welcome to the 28th episode of The Brain Podcast - the official podcast of the journals Brain and Brain Communications. 

This episode features a discussion with three authors of the Brain article entitled: The relationship between kidney health and neurodegenerative diseases

Ms Melody Zuo, Dr Le Chang and Professor Sarah A Gagliano Taliun grace the Brain podcast with an insightful discussion into their recent review examining the connection between kidney disease and neurogeneration. They describe the critical microvascular connection as well as the role of uraemia and small molecules like erythropoetin. Additonally, methodological issues around survival bias, the use of mendelian randomisation and the importance of metadata in the growing age of large available datasets. 

Check out the full article on the Brain website and will be part of the August 2025 issue: https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awaf113

This episode was co-hosted, edited and produced by Chaitra Sathyaprakash and Andreas Thermistocleous, edited and produced by Chaitra and Xin You Tai, co-produced by Antonia Johnston, original music by Ammar Al-Chalabi.

Welcome to the 27th episode of The Brain Podcast - the official podcast of the journals Brain and Brain Communications. 

This episode features a discussion with first author Dr Lucia M Li of the Brain article entitled: High-dimensional proteomic analysis for pathophysiological classification of traumatic brain injury

Listen to the fascinating insights into classifying traumatic brain injury (TBI) using high dimensional proteomic analysis. TBI may start with a head injury but evidence suggests that multiple different underlying pathophysiological pathways can emerge thereafter. Dr Li also describes how she envisages the future of TBI assessment and potential management.

Check out the full article on the Brain website as part of the March 2025 issue: https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awae305

This episode was co-hosted, edited and produced by David Michael and Adam Handel, co-produced by Xin You Tai and Antonia Johnston, original music by Ammar Al-Chalabi.

Welcome to the 26th episode of The Brain Podcast - the official podcast of the journals Brain and Brain Communications. 

This episode features a discussion with first author Dr Marios Kritsilis and senior author Associate Professor Iben Lundgaard of the Brain article entitled: Loss of glymphatic homeostasis in heart failure

This academic duo from Lund University discuss their fascinating findings exploring glymphatic homeostasis in a mouse model of heart failure. Counter-intuitively, there may be more influx but not efflux associated with reduced ejection fraction. This has interesting implications on heart failure associated cognitive changes and risk of developing dementia. 

Check out the full article on the Brain website as part of the March 2025 issue: https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awae411

This episode was co-hosted, edited and produced by Xin You Tai and Roberto Bellanti, co-produced by Antonia Johnston, original music by Ammar Al-Chalabi.

Welcome to the 25th episode of The Brain Podcast - the official podcast of the journals Brain and Brain Communications. 

This episode features a discussion with senior author Dr Tanya Stojkovic of the Brain article entitled: Congenital myasthenic syndromes in adults: clinical features, diagnosis and long-term prognosis

Dr Stojkovic discusses findings from an impressive longitudinal adult cohort of congenital myasthenia syndrome and important issues around accurate diagnosis of congenital myasthenic syndromes and use of electromyography and muscle biopsy.

Check out the full article on the Brain website as part of the November 2024 issue: https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awae124

This episode was co-hosted by David Michael and Roberto Bellanti,  edited and produced by Xin You Tai, co-produced by Antonia Johnston, original music by Ammar Al-Chalabi.

Welcome to the first episode of 2025 for The Brain Podcast - the official podcast of the journals Brain and Brain Communications. 

This episode features a discussion with senior author Dr Frank Porreca of the Brain article entitled: Nociceptors are functionally male or female: from mouse to monkey to man?

Dr Porreca discusses important findings into the  sexual dimorphic nature of nociception and how it could and indeed should affect clinical trial participant design, precision medicine and need for more sex specific studies to unravel the regulation of pain nociception in male and female individuals.

Check out the full article on the Brain website as part of the December 2024 issue: https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awae179

This episode was co-hosted by Chaitra Sathyaprakash and Andreas Thermistocleous,  edited and produced by Chaitra and Xin You Tai, co-produced by Antonia Johnston, original music by Ammar Al-Chalabi.

Welcome to the 23nd episode of The Brain Podcast - the official podcast of the journals Brain and Brain Communications. 

In this episode, we bring on authors Dr Helen Devine and Professor Simon Mead to discuss their opinion article entitled: Academic neurology in the UK: a plea to turn away from the precipice.

The discussions covers the growing concerns regarding the future of academic neurology in the UK and potential solutions. They discuss the parallels seen around the world as this is a growing global problem. They end with their thoughts on why academic neurology is still extremely rewarding and exactly what they would do if they started again.

Check out the full article on the Brain website as part of the July 2024 issue: https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awae151

This episode was co-hosted by Andreas Thermistocleous and Adam Handel,  edited and produced by Andreas Thermistocleous and Xin You Tai, co-produced by Antonia Johnston, original music by Ammar Al-Chalabi.

Welcome to the 22nd episode of The Brain Podcast - the official podcast of the journals Brain and Brain Communications. 

This episode features a discussion with senior author Dr Torsten Baldeweg of the Brain article entitled: Long-term neuropsychological trajectories in children with epilepsy: does surgery halt decline?

Dr Baldeweg discusses fascinating insight into the long term cognitive outcomes from an impressively large cohort of 500 children who had undergone epilepsy surgery and neuropsychological assessment at Great Ormond Street Hospital (1990–2018). Their findings suggest that there are long term cognitive benefits from epilepsy surgery by preventing firther seizures. This has important clinical implications on the importance of achieving seizure freedom for our patients and the role of surgery in this regard.

The Brain podcast team is very happy to introduce a new co-host Dr Roberto Bellanti in this episode and to the team!

Check out the full article on the Brain website as part of the August 2024 issue: https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awae121

This episode was co-hosted by Michael David and Roberto Bellanti,  edited and produced by Chaitra and Xin You Tai, co-produced by Antonia Johnston, original music by Ammar Al-Chalabi.

Welcome to the 21th episode of The Brain Podcast - the official podcast of the journals Brain and Brain Communications. 

This episode features a discussion with the first author Dr Selina Yogeshwar of the Brain article entitled: HLA-DQB1*05 subtypes and not DRB1*10:01 mediates risk in anti-IgLON5 disease 

Dr Yogeshwar offers exciting insight into the genetic mechanisms of a relatively recently discovered disease anti-IgLON5. She also discusses foundational information into how neuroimmunology, neurogenetics and neurodegeneration intersect in this fascinating condition. This exciting episode is not to be missed! 

Check out the full article on the Brain website: https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awae048

This episode was co-hosted by Adam Handel and Chaitra Sathyaprakash,  edited and produced by Chaitra and Xin You Tai, co-produced by Antonia Johnston, original music by Ammar Al-Chalabi.

Welcome to the 20th episode of The Brain Podcast - the official podcast of the journals Brain and Brain Communications. 

This episode features a discussion with the final author Dr Jun Li of the Brain article entitled: PAK2 is necessary for myelination in the peripheral nervous system

How are peripheral nerve cells myelinated and what proteins are invoved? Is there a difference between PAK1 and PAK2? Listen for this and more in this exciting episode.

Check out the full article on the Brain website: https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awad413

This episode was co-hosted by Andreas Thermistocleous and David Michael,  edited and produced by David and Xin You Tai, co-produced by Antonia Johnston, original music by Ammar Al-Chalabi.