This research investigates how declining ovarian health influences brain aging and dementia risk. Using genetically engineered mouse models, it identifies inflammation and metabolic stress in the hippocampus associated with low egg quality, suggesting that treatments targeting menopause, hormonal imbalance, or insulin resistance could help protect cognitive health and prevent dementia.

This research advances health equity for neurological patients by improving health literacy, engaging communities through participatory research, and implementing evidence-based healthcare practices. By designing communication around patients' lived experiences, it aims to improve treatment adherence, reduce health disparities, strengthen caregiver support, and create more accessible, person-centered healthcare systems.

This research has developed a five-minute smartphone memory test that detects subtle cognitive changes associated with early Alzheimer's disease. The tool identified symptom-free individuals with underlying disease and predicted future cognitive decline, outperforming expensive brain scans while offering a simple, accessible, and affordable approach to early diagnosis.

This project developed AI Care, a voice-based caregiving system for people with early-stage Alzheimer's disease. Unlike conventional voice assistants, it uses caregiver-maintained medical records to provide personalised, safety-aware support. By adapting to users rather than requiring users to adapt to technology, AI Care aims to extend safe, independent living at home.

This research investigates how the olfactory system of the Spanish ribbed newt adapts between aquatic and terrestrial environments. By analyzing cellular and genetic changes in the nose, the study reveals remarkable sensory plasticity, offering broader insights into nervous system flexibility and potential implications for understanding neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia.

This study explores anemia as a potential risk factor for dementia, finding that nearly half of dementia patients also exhibit low hemoglobin levels, often undiagnosed. By highlighting links between blood health and cognitive decline, the research advocates earlier detection and a multidisciplinary approach to reduce dementia’s growing societal and healthcare burden.

This talk explains how devastating brain diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and dementia may begin not in the brain, but in the gut. The speaker describes how a protein called alpha-synuclein can change shape, form toxic complexes, and spread from cell to cell, traveling from the gut to the brain via neural connections. Once in the brain, these toxic complexes disrupt movement, memory, and thinking. The research identifies a key protein, FABP2, that promotes this harmful process by interacting with alpha-synuclein. By targeting and breaking this interaction early—at the level of the gut—the work aims to prevent neurodegenerative disease before irreversible brain damage occurs, potentially reducing patient suffering as well as medical and societal costs.

Psychiatric symptoms often precede neurodegenerative diseases, but the biological link remains unclear. This research examines the FMR1 gene using postmortem brain tissue to uncover shared molecular mechanisms, aiming to predict neurodegeneration earlier, improve treatment strategies, and reframe psychiatric symptoms as potential early warning signs.

This talk highlights the lack of ADRD resources and care access for capital-D Deaf communities despite their elevated risk. Through community engagement, sign-language translations, and caregiver-informed guidelines, the research seeks to improve equitable aging and end-of-life support for Deaf individuals until a cure for Alzheimer’s becomes reality.

Prion diseases like CJD are extremely hard to detect early because harmful prions resemble normal brain proteins. This research introduces a new “flashbody” detection tool that binds only disease-causing prions, providing rapid, accurate, equipment-free diagnosis. Early lab results and patient-screening trials are promising, with potential applications to Alzheimer’s and other dementias.