Translator: Shimaa Nabil Reviewer: Rhonda Jacobs
Today, I'm here to talk about one of the world's leading causes of death.
It takes away your memory
and your ability to think.
And in advanced stages of the disease,
you lose all sense of time and space.
These are the symptoms of dementia.
And in Australia, more than 350,000 people are living with dementia,
and it's not something that old people just get.
It can be due to a pathological disease
that cause your neurons in your brain to die.
And one of these examples is Alzheimer's disease.
Up to 70% of those living with dementia have Alzheimer's disease,
and it's actually the second leading cause of death in Australia.
And yes, aging is a risk factor.
However, we're going to see more cases of Alzheimer's disease
due to our aging population.
In fact, by 2050, it's predicted that more than 21% of the world
will be aged 60 and above.
Currently, more than 40 million people in the world
are living with Alzheimer's disease.
So why are these numbers so big?
This is due to the ability of humans now able to live longer,
but this wasn't always the case.
Back 30,000 years ago,
the Neanderthals are only lived to age of 30 years old,
where the leading causes of death
were things like hunting accidents and malnutrition.
Now, fast-forward to the 1800s,
the life expectancy then increased to 40 years old,
where diseases such as tuberculosis and scarlet fever
were leading causes of death.
Now, during this time,
medicine and science
was able to develop diagnostic tests and treatments for these diseases.
So with better health care and better lifestyles,
the life expectancy then increased to 70 years old in the 1900s.
And now today, in the 21st century,
we are now living to 85 years old.
(Laughter)
However, we are now seeing a new sets of disorders.
Living longer has seen high incidences in cancer,
and perhaps maybe not too surprisingly,
a decrease in mental function and mobility
as seen in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.
These are the 21st century health problems that medicine and science now face,
and these are the statistics.
But what happens if that one person is you?
Who are we without our memories?
Imagine losing your memories.
Without them, we lose ourselves.
Or take it from the carers point of view.
It’s a truly devastating disease to watch.
So terrible that immediate family members
who have Alzheimer's disease in their family
are concerned about their risk in developing the disease too.
Those that have heard about our research has contacted us
in order to be part of our research and studies.
And this is one of the quotes from our study participants,
“My mother had the disease diagnosed at age of 56.
As I am now at that age, I have a personal interest
in the likelihood of me developing that disease …”
So unfortunately we don’t have a cure for this person.
However, this person still wants to know.
Maybe it’s for their family.
Maybe they want to change their lifestyles to prevent the disease.
Or may be they want to tick off items in their bucket list.
So let’s talk about how my research is going to help these people.
So a little bit of science to begin with.
Alzheimer's disease is caused by a toxic protein called amyloid,
and it accumulates in the brain,
where it starts killing off the neurons in your brain.
In time, this starts to destroy the communication
between neuron to neuron.
And these amyloid plaques, they're like plaques like rust in a car.
So over time,
this destroys the communication
that occurs in your brain.
And we now know that it takes about 10 years for that toxic protein to build
before the appearance of symptoms,
and the symptoms worsen.
But of course,
we also know
that patients only go to see their doctors
when they experience symptoms,
by which stage the toxic protein
is at a level that's too high for drugs to clear.
So the general consensus is that we need to treat patients earlier.
But in order to intervene earlier,
we need a test to diagnose the disease earlier.
So what we've been able to do
is to develop a blood test to detect the disease earlier before symptoms arise.
However, it’s quite difficult to diagnose a brain disorder.
That’s because the brain is a difficult organ to access.
So you might be thinking,
neh, not another blood test.
But the technology behind this test
was created by adventurous scientists,
the 21st century scientists.
And I'm finding during my postdoctoral training
that in order to solve complex problems,
we need to be multi-skilled, not only in the area of our specialty
but across all different specialty fields of science.
So today,
I'm also feeling that as a scientist,
it's very creative process.
We brainstorm ideas, we develop ideas,
we try and make them happen, and this is driven by curiosity.
And even though that's just me photo,
I have a huge collaborative team of people behind me.
And some of them do look like Doc from "Back to the Future."
But most of them do look normal.
(Laughter)
So,
in order to work in a collaborative team,
we need to be good communicators.
Scientists like to hide in the lab,
but we need to be better communicators
so we can explain our research to the general public,
especially those make decisions against health healthcare.
So they can identify which discoveries
need to make it through to the hospital bedside.
And this photo here
represents to me where science is heading.
Science in the 21st century is now merging with IT, technology and engineering.
And back in the 1990s,
it actually took a huge scientific team
to decode the genetic code of life, your DNA, what makes you you,
and it cost them 3 billion dollars.
And now today,
with this little chip that I'm holding,
I can decode and determine your genetic makeup in two and a half hours
for about a thousand dollars.
(Applause)
So this
opens up the possibility
for not only screening for Alzheimer's disease
but also every other disease and condition.
It also opens up the possibilities for personalized medicine.
So you're probably wondering what I put these chips,
and it's not chicken salt.
(Laughter)
It's not actually blood either.
It's what's in the blood.
Scientists have now discovered
that cells can release cellular particles into the blood stream,
and these particles are called exosomes.
They're very small, nano in size,
they're about hundred thousand times smaller than a cell.
We once thought that these exosomes was a way to remove waste out of a cell.
But now we know that it works like an internal postal system,
where the exosomes are like parcels,
and they contain biological messages
that can be passed from one cell to another.
So for example,
pretend I'm a cell,
and I release an exosome full of goodies, for example.
It travels through the body, through blood stream,
and a recipient cell in a distant part of the body accepts it -
it takes the delivery and the contents of the exosomes
gets emptied into the recipient cell,
and it can change the behavior of that cell.
So in humans, the contents can be good, they can be survival factors.
However, in a sick person, they can be toxic factors.
And my research involves
the profiling between healthy and sick exosomes.
And by doing this, I can determine the factors,
in particular the genetic factors,
that are associated with Alzheimer's disease.
But you can see, I can do this for every other diseases and condition.
And we also aim to understand how we can live longer free of dementia and cancer.
But the applications of exosomes is endless.
What we can do is hijack them in transit,
packaged them with different beneficial factors, like therapies,
readdress them and send them off to the affected area, such as the brain.
We can also change their composition so it's the same as the patient,
in order to avoid rejection.
It’s an exciting time for the 21st century scientist,
and next breakthrough is only around the corner.
Thank you.
(Applause)