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UKDRI Connectome Conference Highlights · Dementia Researcher Vodcast

0:00
- [Voice Over] The Dementia Researcher podcast,
0:02
talking careers, research, conference highlights,
0:05
and so much more.
0:08
- Hello and welcome to special podcast,
0:10
recording highlights of the UK Dementia Research Institute
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Annual Connectome Conference.
0:17
(upbeat music)
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Hello, I'm Dr. Anna Mallach,
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and I'm from the UK Dementia Research
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Institute Centre at Imperial.
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And I look into the role of support cells
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and how they can contribute to Parkinson's
0:34
and the progression of this disease.
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So those of you who don't know,
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Connectome is the UK DRI's annual conference,
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which means that at the end of every year
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or towards the end of every year,
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over 600 UK DRI members from across the institutes
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are coming together every year in a different city
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across the UK to talk science and meet up.
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It provides a very important opportunity to connect
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with colleagues from other centres, other locations.
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And today we're giving you some insights
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into what was presented over those three days
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that happened last week.
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Before we jump into the highlights, let's meet our guests.
1:13
Tom?
1:15
- Hi, yes, so my name's Tom.
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I'm a researcher from Imperial College
1:19
with the CR&T Centre,
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the Care Research and Technology Centre.
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And I'm with Paul Fremont's lab,
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and I, so I have a background in engineering
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and the rest of the team are all synthetic biologists,
1:35
and we are developing a device
1:38
which detects for urinary tract infections
1:41
for people living with dementia.
1:42
It's a home testing device
1:45
that we're trying to provide to those
1:49
so that we can mitigate the need
1:53
for symptom recognition and enable home testing
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for quick detection. - Interesting.
1:58
Beth?
1:59
- So, hi, I am Beth.
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I am a postdoc at the University of Edinburgh,
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and I really just recently joined my supervisor,
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Susanne van Veluw moved from Boston to Edinburgh.
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And we're part of the new British Heart Foundation
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Cardiovascular Dementia Research Centre.
2:19
I think that's right, I'll check.
2:22
And I'm working on a disease
2:24
called cerebral amyloid angiopathy,
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which is where amyloid protein gets deposited
2:29
around blood vessels within the brain.
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So I do lots of cool research into that.
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- Finally, Dayne.
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- Hi, I'm Dayne Beccano Kelly.
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I am a group leader here at the Dementia Research Institute.
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Specifically the geographical location
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of this one is at Cardiff University,
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and I work on synaptic dysfunction in Parkinson's
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as a way of identifying early therapeutics
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and how this may shift and change over time to identify,
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basically the most efficacious therapeutic strategies
2:58
we could do at each phase of the disorder.
3:02
(upbeat music)
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- Amazing, so now that we've met the guests,
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for those who haven't had one
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of our conference podcasts before, this is how it works.
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So we will each take turns discussing an interesting talk
3:17
or poster that they attended at the conference
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that really made an impression in whatever way.
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We'll loop around a couple of times,
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you really get a sense of the broad things
3:25
that happened at the conference.
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So, Beth, let's begin with you.
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What stood you...
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What stood out for you at the conference?
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- So there's a couple of things.
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So, 'cause it was my first Connectome,
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I was just really surprised by the size of it.
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I think I sort of didn't realise like the scale
3:40
of the UK Dementia Research Institute,
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and, you know, the vast amount of science
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that everyone sort of studies.
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I'm a blood vessel person so it's really easy for me
3:48
to just stay in my blood vessel field.
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So it was really nice to sort of learn more
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about the genetics and things like that, that people study.
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So that was just my first little thing.
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But for me, the main things
4:00
that really stood out at this conference,
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and I feel a bit bad for saying it first,
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is the all the lived experience sessions.
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I think it was really fantastic how,
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like, the start of the conference of the first day
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we had the lived experience conversation
4:15
with I guest Rory Cellan-Jones,
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who's one of the hosts of the Movers and Shakers podcast.
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And he talked about his own experiences
4:23
with Parkinson's disease.
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And he actually was a gay gay,
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he, like, asked questions to some scientists on stage.
4:31
And from that he talks about, you know, the importance
4:34
of communicating with people living with Parkinson's disease
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and communicating during those clinical trials.
4:39
And especially the importance of using
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sort of the correct language,
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like making our complex science make sense to people.
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I think that's, you know, something really important
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that all researchers have to sort of focus on
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when talking about our work,
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and sort of the focus on when there would be treatments,
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you know, keeping hope but not overpromising.
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I thought they were just some really lovely
5:00
take home messages from that sort of conversation.
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And then, you know, still going on
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about the lived experience sessions.
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I really also enjoyed how the conference sort of ended
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with another fantastic lived experience session,
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and it was totally different to the first one.
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In this one Charles Sabine sort of who represents
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the Hidden No More Foundation presented
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a really moving talk sort of,
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he, like, narrated sort of his own experiences
5:25
with Huntington's and this was sort of,
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you saw videos from his career
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and he talked about his family,
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and, you know, the hope that was now here
5:33
with the gene therapy trial that we've also talked about,
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which I'm sure somebody will talk about in this podcast,
5:40
but they were just particular for me.
5:42
- Yeah and I think particularly with this,
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like, mirroring of having Sarah Tabrizi
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give the science talk just before about the therapies,
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and then I think that was timed incredibly.
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And then having, yeah, Charles talk right immediately after,
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not as a scientist and coming at this
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from a very personal and such different angle.
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I think that was incredible 'cause I think as scientists
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we want to develop these cures,
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and I think was often so siloed in our little science boxes
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that it was a beautiful reminder
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as to what we're working for.
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- I also thought that Rory Cellan-Jones'
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section was fantastic.
6:20
He had come here to Cardiff previously
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and we met with him individually and he just so sharp
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and was great at translating the science into very good
6:31
and effective audio bites rather than it just sounding cool,
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they were actually accurate,
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which sometimes may not happen
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when we are translating data to the media, the main screen.
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So I also really liked that, Beth.
6:44
I thought it was really good.
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- Yeah, I really liked his talk as well.
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I think it's just always so compelling seeing the people
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that actually affected, and, like, hearing,
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yeah, getting to engage in them and have,
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like, meaningful discussions.
7:00
And yeah, like you said, just not being lost
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in your day-to-day research and seeing
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actually where we're going with our work.
7:08
- For sure, and I think kind of reflecting
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on maybe previous Connectome conferences,
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I thought this one was amazing
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that it had this focus on the lift experiences.
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So, in a way that was kind of one of the feedback
7:19
that I gave like this.
7:20
Maybe we should keep this up.
7:23
All right, Tom, what was one of all your highlights?
7:28
- Yes, I mean Connectome's always a bit of a funny one
7:31
for me because I'm from an engineering background,
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and obviously it's very focused on neuroscience
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and it can be quite challenging.
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But in the same breath,
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there's so much to learn on on that basis,
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and it just highlights how multidisciplinary
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the whole thing is.
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But I really liked, it was one of the first talks,
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it was Malcolm Macleod and he's a professor of neurology
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and translation of neuroscience at Edinburgh.
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And I mean for, yeah, anyone who saw it,
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he is, like, super entertaining, very funny.
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And his focus was much more
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on how researchers actually conducts themselves
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and how to really push for sort of good quality research.
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And while that sounds quite obvious,
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it's just not really discussed that much
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for early career researchers I've found.
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And like a lot of the emphasis is on pushing for papers
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and getting into like good journals and things like that.
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And he actually spoke in one
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of our centre meetings a few months ago.
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Yeah, just again, the same thing,
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a really thought-provoking,
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really makes you think about the quality
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of your own research very, very introspective.
8:43
Yeah, just talking about how personal biases
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of researchers can really steer your research
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and how to sort of avoid those from creeping in.
8:55
So, yeah, I always quite like his talk
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so it made me feel very reflective.
9:00
- That was during the early career
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and technology stay, wasn't it?
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So that's the day...
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For people who don't know
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that's the day we have before Connectome.
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So this case on Monday
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for the early career researchers and technologists,
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which again I think is wonderful opportunity
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to kind of bring, yeah, everyone together in a group,
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maybe without the scary group leaders.
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- Yeah, I agree with Tom.
9:26
I think the Malcolm's talk was fantastic,
9:29
like, super engaging.
9:30
I think I heard so many people talking about afterwards,
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and like you say, it's just something that,
9:35
you know, is definitely needs to be talked about,
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but it's quite hard to talk about,
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and it's hard to talk about in a really engaging manner
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that people don't feel,
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you know, he just explained it in such a great way,
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and it wasn't just like you say
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about going in these top tier papers,
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it was about being, you know, having integrity
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and doing the best research you can.
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And I think to hear it
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back from someone so high up and so esteemed is,
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you know, really helpful for,
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you know, early career researcher.
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- You both just mentioned it there as well,
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which is that there were quite a few neurologists in there
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or practising neurologists that also doing research,
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and that from my team and others that I've spoken to about,
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it seems to have come across that it was that one
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of the best things about this particular Connectome
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was that there seemed to be a really a good breadth
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from basic science, as we term it, all the way through to,
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again you just said the patient engagement as well
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or the people with dementia engagement
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and then neurologists. And it just felt like there was
10:37
a really good balance this year.
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So you can see how it can move from one phase to the other.
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And that's been said a number of times
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at least here at the UK DRI,
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but you guys have just mentioned it as well.
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So I think that's been particularly good as well,
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and I'm glad it was, that they were so engaging
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and that you guys found it engaging as well as,
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you know, myself and everybody else.
11:00
It was really good.
11:01
It was really good.
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- Amazing, so now that you're already talking
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about what you really enjoyed, Dayne,
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what was one of your personal highlights?
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- I thought all the plenary speakers were really good.
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So it is not to say that they,
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like, anyone in particular was better than the others
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'cause I actually, from personal perspective,
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really liked Erin Schuman's talk
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'cause it worked on synapses.
11:23
I'm not sure can we classify Sarah's
11:25
as being a plenary talk?
11:26
It wasn't specifically gay,
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but she just rushed back from her BNA award ceremony.
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And so, I feel like it had quite a lot
11:34
of billing leading up to that and that was also really good.
11:37
But I thought Christian Haass talk was fantastic.
11:41
I thought it was really good.
11:44
It was quite refreshing because he himself,
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I think by his own admission was like,
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I'm coming towards the end of my career now,
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and he just kind of came out and was just like,
11:52
I don't think Michael Greger,
11:53
the initiator of Alzheimer's disease.
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And he caught it, sort of caught, like, almost a short,
11:56
sharp intake of breath from some people in the audience.
11:59
And I was a bit like, okay, this is gonna be a good one
12:02
because I've seen him give talks before
12:04
and he's always really good.
12:05
But, yeah, I thought it was quite nice to maybe start off
12:10
with what could be perceived
12:12
as a controversial statement perhaps
12:14
to something in the crowd,
12:15
but then, you know, back it up with all
12:17
of the evidence that he's had over time.
12:19
And he gave a lot of, not only was the work really good
12:23
and talking about the fine balance that's required
12:26
between, like, microglial control within the brain
12:29
and whether or not it's attacking aggregation
12:31
of amyloid beta or whether or not it's maintaining
12:33
the balance of whether it's causing detriment,
12:35
or keeping everything in check was there as well.
12:38
But he also gave really insightful snippets
12:40
as to how to manage the career,
12:43
and I don't know if anybody else sort of picked up
12:44
that he was talking about interactions with pharma
12:47
and industry and the best connections he's ever had
12:51
and maybe huge pitfalls that he'd interacted with
12:54
and the things that to do and perhaps not to do.
12:56
And he interspaced it really well with the idea that,
13:00
you know, microglia may not be the initiator,
13:03
but may well be a driver
13:05
and modulator of the disease process
13:07
and affecting penetrance and affecting the manifestation.
13:11
And so, I just thought it was a,
13:12
just a sort of a really wonderfully well balanced talk
13:16
in giving both insight into Korea
13:18
as well as insight into the disease state.
13:21
And so, I just thought it was a,
13:23
I fanboyed a little bit and was just like,
13:25
man, I hope I can be that cool when I'm getting to the end
13:28
of my career because it was really good.
13:30
And I was like, yeah, so I was like,
13:32
yeah, it was, I thought it was fantastic
13:34
and just really, really well delivered
13:36
and the science in it was so well executed
13:39
as you would expect from Christian Haass as well.
13:42
- Yeah, but in a way I had the similar feeling
13:44
'cause I feel like I've worked on TREM2,
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I was quite familiar with the science,
13:49
and so what I found really interesting
13:51
was how he approached his career.
13:53
And not just like science for the sake of doing science,
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but also thinking about it strategically
13:58
and kind of his shift towards the microglia.
14:01
He was like, you know, 10 years left
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and then we decided to look at the microglia,
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and you're like, this is, it's the art of doing science,
14:08
- Yes. - as well as doing science.
14:10
- Yes, doing it well,
14:12
and having a sort of a clear understanding of like,
14:15
he did it so methodically as well.
14:18
And it sort of like, it seems...
14:20
Possibly it seems like that
14:21
the way he presented it and in hindsight,
14:23
but from my impression of his work throughout his career,
14:27
it does seem like he built the fundamentals up
14:30
and then found something and then expounded upon that
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and then found that and it just,
14:34
it was just so well built.
14:35
And so, yeah, I'm not gonna start fanboy again,
14:37
but it was really good.
14:39
I thought it was great.
14:40
So that's one of my highlights
14:42
and it's not to say that sort of Erin and Sarah's work
14:45
wasn't beautifully well presented as well.
14:48
It just struck me personally from my personal point of view
14:51
that it was just such a beautiful balance in the talk.
14:55
So it was good.
14:56
I thought that was really great.
14:57
- I think it was also super accessible.
15:00
Like, I know a little bit about TREM2
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but I am definitely not an expert in TREM2
15:04
and I think the way, you know, his graphics on the slides,
15:08
the way, you know, he built up that information.
15:11
I think it probably allowed people
15:12
who didn't really know much about microglia and TREM2
15:15
to actually access some of that information
15:17
'cause, you know, it can be quite hard
15:18
when you're at these conferences
15:20
and if it's not your sort of research realm,
15:22
you know, we're all quite niche.
15:23
I think when it's presented that way,
15:26
it is just, like, more achievable for everyone
15:28
to kind of like understand the concepts of it.
15:32
- Yeah, you're absolutely right.
15:33
And I think in similar vein,
15:36
one of my conference highlights
15:37
was actually Erin Schuman's keynote on on the synapses
15:40
'cause I'm not a synapse person.
15:43
I kind of started to dabble in it.
15:45
But she just started out her talk
15:47
with this, like, beautiful rotating image
15:49
of just, like, a neuro and all of the projections.
15:52
And it was so, even as a neuroscientist,
15:56
just seeing that visual and she,
15:58
you know, went very deep into the structure and whatnot.
16:02
So my team have been like,
16:05
fangirling, boying over that for a really long time now.
16:07
And they all, I have to try and force them
16:10
not to do any structural EM now
16:12
because they were like, yeah, it's structure.
16:13
And I was like, oh, God, no.
16:15
There are many steps we have to take
16:17
before we can get as cool as Erin, please, people.
16:19
- No, yeah, yeah.
16:20
It's gonna take several years of dedicated work.
16:24
I know that, yeah. - Yeah.
16:26
- My PhD student wanted to go and talk to this.
16:29
Erin, if you're watching this,
16:30
we'd love to collaborate with you.
16:31
I don't know if that was just a shameless shout out.
16:35
My PhD student tried to find you directly after this
16:37
and we couldn't find you, so.
16:39
But yeah, the work was great, I agree.
16:41
It was really great. - Yeah.
16:43
And again, like, really accessible
16:45
'cause by the end, like, all of the,
16:47
like, really nitty gritty of the findings and the,
16:50
you know, the ribosomal changes at synapses,
16:53
I think that could have immediately gone over my head.
16:57
And yet, kind of she slowly built it up
17:00
that by the time she got to that point, you're like,
17:01
well, of course that makes sense.
17:04
(all laughing)
17:06
- Yeah, I'm excited. - Yeah, excited.
17:08
Well, this doesn't feel like a breach anymore
17:11
to kind of say, of course they,
17:12
you know, within 10 minutes neurons or ribosomes,
17:16
synapse become so stressed that they shut down.
17:18
And by the end, you were like,
17:19
yes, that's, now I can go read the papers
17:22
and maybe understand slightly more.
17:23
- Yeah.
17:25
- But what I also really...
17:26
Then she kind of also highlighted,
17:27
you know, the website that they had on like,
17:29
the synaptic RNA versus the cellular RNA.
17:33
And I think that just,
17:34
as a kind of notch to, like, data sharing
17:36
and making data available and accessible in a way that,
17:40
you know, everyday scientists are interested
17:43
who don't necessarily have a background
17:44
in bio can access it.
17:46
I thought that was just one of the many things
17:48
that I really enjoyed about her talk.
17:50
- Very good, really good.
17:53
(upbeat music)
17:59
- Right, so we've done the first round of highlights,
18:01
I think we're gonna go around again.
18:03
So, back to you, Beth.
18:05
- Oh, yeah, so I think the,
18:08
there's obviously just so many really cool, exciting talks,
18:11
but I have to sort of highlight the,
18:13
we had a whole session on introducing
18:15
the British Heart Foundation,
18:17
UK Dementia Research Institute Centre
18:20
for Vascular Dementia Research, that's the correct.
18:24
You know, when you move somewhere new
18:25
and you have to learn all these new acronyms.
18:29
And I loved that session because,
18:31
you know, it's a new sort of centre,
18:33
it's not a specific place.
18:35
The idea is it's, you know,
18:36
it's the whole institute as well.
18:38
We've not done it in geographics.
18:40
So there's people from Oxford,
18:42
there's people from Edinburgh.
18:45
Where else? - UCL, right?
18:47
UCL, there we go.
18:48
So it's really nice, and this was a great talk,
18:51
like, great session.
18:52
We learned about oligodendrocytes, CAA.
18:56
We learned about brain energy supply
18:59
and blood-brain barrier models in vitro models.
19:01
And I think it was a really nice way to sort
19:03
of introduce the centre to everyone,
19:05
and, you know, give an idea of the work
19:08
that some of these scientists do
19:09
And then, you know, hope for,
19:11
you know, collaborations from people
19:13
'cause a couple of these scientists are new to the field.
19:15
So my supervisor, Susanne van Veluw, she's moved to the DRI.
19:19
We have new TA who's a Oxford,
19:22
Rakesh Jain who's at Edinburgh.
19:25
And then we have Catherine Hall who's at UCL
19:28
and also at the University of Sussex.
19:31
So I think it's just a really nice,
19:32
and this is headed by Dave Attwell who's at UCL,
19:35
and I think it was just a really lovely introduction to,
19:38
you know, something that I'm really passionate about,
19:40
which is blood vessels.
19:43
I love blood vessels. - I love it, I love it.
19:44
I love it, really good.
19:45
- Yeah, one of my highlights as well
19:48
was specifically Catherine Hall's talk.
19:51
I thought it was just very interesting,
19:54
yeah, talking about the oxygen supply
19:56
and how that affects the brain and and memory.
19:59
And I think for, yeah, from my background,
20:03
she managed to explain it very well
20:06
and I was able to follow through a lot of it.
20:07
But, yeah, just interesting how like,
20:09
sort of subtle reductions in oxygen.
20:12
And yeah, and therefore energy to the brain
20:16
just have a real impact on memory
20:19
and how this can show up very early for the disease
20:21
and more obvious symptoms.
20:23
But I thought that I found that quite interesting.
20:28
It clicked for me that it links with some of the work
20:30
that's actually done in our own centre by Derk-Jan.
20:35
He focuses a lot on sleep.
20:36
I don't know if you guys saw his talk as well,
20:39
but he's spoken before about sleep apnea
20:41
and how that obviously has big reductions
20:44
in oxygen while sleeping.
20:48
And yeah, obviously affects
20:49
the energy supplies of the brain.
20:51
But just interesting thinking about those two separate
20:55
sort of indicators that they both can,
21:00
yeah, just lead to memory problems specifically.
21:02
- Definitely, and I think this is why,
21:05
for example, the new Centre for Vascular Research
21:09
is such a good addition to the GRI
21:10
'cause I think we have a lot of GRI researchers
21:13
who kind of dabble on the edges
21:15
of kind of vascular dementia research.
21:18
And so it's really nice to kind of say
21:19
we have this concrete centre now
21:21
with our four dedicated group leaders,
21:23
but we also obviously have a lot of other group leaders
21:26
in the DRI who are doing a bit of research on that
21:30
and kind of just giving them the biggest space now
21:32
to collaborate and do something.
21:34
So I thought definitely, with our asset here at Imperial,
21:37
there was a lot of discussion afterwards
21:39
of, like, collaborations,
21:40
maybe even with Susanne specifically,
21:44
and doing a range of those different things.
21:45
I think it's a nice addition to the DRI
21:48
and I think we'll add a lot more
21:50
than just four group leaders,
21:52
and David Attwell, I guess five group leaders.
21:56
- Yeah, I agree.
21:56
There are already so many people
21:58
who do blood vessel research,
22:00
you know, endothelial cell research,
22:01
astrocytes sort of research
22:04
who have done amazing work on that already.
22:06
And I think you're so right.
22:08
Just the addition of the centre is just,
22:10
I think it's just nice for everyone who is,
22:11
you know, interested in blood vessels,
22:13
and like you say, people who are sort of on the cusp of it.
22:15
I think it's really nice to, you know, there's so much,
22:18
we need so much more research in that area.
22:21
So it's really nice that there is this,
22:22
you know, the funding for this new centre.
22:26
- All right, so I guess,
22:27
Tom, you just talked about your highlights,
22:28
so we're back to you, Dayne.
22:30
Another highlight.
22:31
- So I think, it's gonna sound a bit weird,
22:34
the breaks were really good.
22:36
(indistinct)
22:38
But specifically, specifically,
22:40
and I say this in jest, but also I'm serious
22:43
because we just, again, briefly touched on it.
22:47
It's really nice to sit down
22:49
and have conversations with your peers,
22:53
with, you know, next generation of scientists,
22:55
and actually come up with some new ideas
22:58
and really spit balling based on X talk.
23:02
You've just seen that stimulated ideas,
23:06
and has led you to maybe continue the conversation
23:09
as you're coming out of the auditorium
23:12
and then sitting down and sort of really,
23:14
you know, shooting it out and really starting
23:17
to come to a conclusion that,
23:18
you know, you possibly could work on something together.
23:21
I had a really good chat with a few people from this,
23:26
including Marco Brancaccio and hopefully we're gonna do
23:31
some new innovative work together.
23:33
And it's all come from just sort of sitting down
23:36
and working through some of the ideas
23:37
and really trying to hash it out.
23:40
Could we actually do this?
23:40
What would we need first?
23:42
Is there preliminary data we can gather?
23:44
Does this, you know, meet our needs?
23:46
Yes, no, maybe.
23:48
Can we really work this through?
23:49
And so, yeah, I've really valued that ability
23:52
to have the period of time where you can sit down
23:56
and really sort of chew the fat around the science.
23:59
Especially when you did have,
24:00
you know, talks like Christian's
24:03
who was being a bit controversial about something,
24:06
or had said a controversial statement.
24:07
And so, it sort of drove the conversation,
24:11
the discussion that you could have,
24:13
and sort of really generated that ability to have,
24:17
you know, a really raw chats about data,
24:20
which can be really sort of stimulating.
24:22
And so, I do sincerely mean it,
24:23
although it does sound funny that the breaks
24:25
were really useful in between all of those
24:28
to really sit down.
24:29
I think there was the ability to do that.
24:31
There was that room way at the back
24:33
that had tables that people suddenly found
24:35
when we were trying to eat dinners and lunch
24:37
that it was kind of that we found ourselves in there
24:39
and chatting way a few times.
24:41
And so that was really, really powerful.
24:43
I'd say another thing, sorry, just that was really good,
24:47
was the, I know it's general,
24:49
but in the area where we had
24:52
the poster sessions was the table,
24:55
and for instance, the dementia researcher section
24:59
was really good for me to volunteer,
25:03
voluntold some of my students and postdocs to go
25:06
and chat about their science and get it out there
25:08
because I think that the fact
25:09
that we do have so many outlets
25:12
for showcasing the work via different platforms,
25:15
YouTube, shorts, audios, podcasts, et cetera,
25:20
it's really powerful for getting our data,
25:22
but also exposure of the ECRs datas, data sets.
25:27
And I think that's really important personally,
25:29
and I pushed forward Gloria Cimaglia, my postdoc,
25:34
and Shikha Kataria and Susanne
25:37
to put their either audio or minute shorts,
25:41
and those are already up online on like,
25:43
LinkedIn and YouTube and talking about their data
25:46
and sort of metabolism Parkinson's
25:48
and also looking at lysosomal dysfunction
25:50
and be able to showcase it in sort of different styles.
25:54
Shorts, audio, where you are answering questions
25:57
kind of gives access to what we're doing
26:00
'cause I'm really a big proponent of,
26:02
sort of demystifying the science that we do
26:05
because I don't think it serves anything to keep it sort of,
26:07
oh, you can't know about this,
26:08
we're just doing science things.
26:09
You don't need to look behind the curtain sort of idea.
26:12
It's much better to just be out there
26:14
with all the information for various reasons,
26:17
but not least of which, 'cause we're doing this for,
26:20
you know, the populace,
26:21
and so they should know what we're doing.
26:22
So I think having all that data out there
26:25
in these different mediums is really useful.
26:28
And so it was really nice to have that opportunity
26:32
in those spaces as well.
26:33
So I really love that.
26:36
- That's good, and I think talking about the ECRs
26:39
or slightly more ECRs,
26:41
one of my highlights now we've talked about,
26:43
you know, the big keynotes
26:46
was actually the parallel sessions.
26:47
So I thought it was so nice that for a couple of moments
26:50
at the conference we could break up
26:52
into two smaller groups, which also meant that
26:54
for at least the session that I was hosting
26:56
on data and digital,
26:58
which means we moved into the room upstairs.
27:00
So it wasn't the big scary auditorium,
27:02
which it was a smaller contained group
27:04
and they listened to maybe, yeah, more the ECRs talk.
27:07
And I thought that was really powerful as well
27:09
to kind of hear from the people leading the research
27:12
and doing the research, what they were doing.
27:14
So one highlight for me was Magda Kolanko,
27:17
who is from David Sharp's lab
27:19
at the care tech research, Care Research and Tech.
27:24
- Yeah. - CR&T.
27:25
- CR&T, yeah, we've already defined it
27:27
so you can use the acronym now.
27:30
- Centre at Imperial who used,
27:34
who's kind of working on something very different
27:36
to what we are doing, but using early detection systems,
27:39
in this case, a sleep mat,
27:41
to be able to predict respiratory infections
27:45
in people living with dementia, living at home.
27:49
And to really enable with that,
27:51
feeding this to the NHS
27:53
and enabling people to stay in the home for longer.
27:55
And I thought that was just a really nice,
27:58
just such different approach, but giving,
28:01
just such different approach,
28:02
but, like, using data for common good.
28:04
And we had a lot of discussion about it afterwards
28:06
in terms of data analysis and training,
28:08
you know, something that sounds very scary, AI systems,
28:11
but, like, how can that best be done
28:14
and what uses do they have
28:16
and how do we actually do science?
28:17
So I thought her talk was a really good jumping off point
28:20
to maybe have other discussions as well.
28:22
So, yeah, that was one of my kind of very,
28:26
yeah, one of my highlights, for sure.
28:28
And if you do parallel sessions,
28:30
you can showcase double all the amount of talent
28:34
in a way mathematically.
28:35
So, yeah, I think we'll do one last whip
28:37
around about highlights.
28:39
So, Beth, final comments.
28:43
- More comments.
28:44
So I was genuinely very impressed
28:47
by all of the flash talks.
28:49
I think sometimes you can go to a conference
28:51
and they say flash talks,
28:53
and they said it was one minute and I thought,
28:55
how can anyone describe what they've been doing in one?
28:58
Because that one minute is really short.
29:00
- Oh, yeah. - Like, I've been to them
29:01
where three minutes and I'm like, okay, three minutes,
29:03
you know, it's a good amount of time.
29:04
But one minute, and I thought, how are they gonna do this?
29:07
And every single person explained their work
29:11
in such a succinct manner.
29:13
It was clear, it was concise, they were engaging.
29:16
There were a couple of like, little like,
29:17
ooh, come and see my post
29:18
if you wanna actually know what we're doing.
29:19
But, like, I just think they,
29:22
all of the researchers did such a good job of that.
29:25
And I think it's the best flash talks
29:27
I've ever seen at conference.
29:29
I was really, really impressed.
29:31
And then it made me, like, want to go
29:32
to some of the posters.
29:33
I saw somebody who was reaching Gaia Brezzo
29:36
from University of Edinburgh in the same institute as me,
29:40
but you don't always know what people are doing.
29:42
And I really loved the project that they were working on,
29:44
so I then went and spoke to them about it,
29:46
some of the models that they've been using.
29:49
And I found that was a really good sort of starting point
29:51
to chat with people about their work.
29:53
So the flash talks were done fantastically.
29:58
- Yeah, they were really good.
30:00
Did you see the one done by abs that was,
30:03
he took a bit of a different approach
30:05
where he asked the questions to the crowd.
30:08
- Yeah. - And I think, different,
30:12
I think he just like worked
30:14
that format very well rather than sort of squeezing,
30:16
squeezing the PhD or whatever into 60 seconds.
30:22
It was just perfect.
30:23
(indistinct)
30:24
- The mindset, it was really good.
30:26
- It was really good. - So for people
30:27
who didn't see it,
30:29
do you wanna just briefly say what Abs did,
30:31
and maybe where he's from?
30:33
- So Abs, this is slightly biassed, he's also from CR&T
30:36
but, yeah, he basically asked a question
30:40
of how many people in the room think that EEG could be,
30:46
could cause accelerated ageing.
30:48
And people put their hands up
30:50
and then he asked about different factors
30:53
and gradually the hands went down,
30:55
but some people still thought that they might affect it.
30:57
And then he was like, "Well, you guys don't need
30:59
to come to my poster, but everyone else come along."
31:04
And it was just, yeah, it was just perfect I thought.
31:06
But also, yeah, a really impressive bit of work from him
31:10
and looking at how these EEG signals
31:13
can predict accelerated ageing.
31:17
And yeah, just super,
31:20
like, 15-year-long data set,
31:24
is, yeah, it's just very, very compelling data,
31:26
and, yeah, a bit different.
31:28
- Yeah, it did stick in the mind.
31:30
It was such an interesting approach to it.
31:32
It was brilliant, yeah.
31:34
- And very efficient, part of it takes, like, very much,
31:37
like very different than any other flash talk,
31:38
but hit it on the nose, and all within 60 seconds.
31:42
I was the timekeeper for that flash talk session.
31:45
And I have to say I was really worried
31:47
they would run over boards.
31:48
We were very strict with them.
31:50
Not a single one.
31:51
A lot of them I think, 'cause I scared them a bit too much,
31:53
stuck to 30 seconds.
31:54
I was like, no, so like you can talk a bit more.
31:56
- Yeah, yeah, you really embedded a lot of fear,
32:00
I think, in the- - Oh, god, we don't need
32:03
to have this on the air, sshhh.
32:04
Okay, Dayne, one of your highlights.
32:07
- Okay, sorry, I'll try and swiftly lead it on.
32:09
I apologise, guys, that's funny.
32:13
One of the other talks,
32:16
so, again, I thought this sort of parallel sessions,
32:18
this sort of were brilliant,
32:21
but one of those from one of the parallel sessions
32:24
was one of the first parallel sessions,
32:26
the exchange auditorium.
32:30
It was specifically Amanda Heslegrave.
32:34
She was talking about the Biomarker Factory, yeah.
32:37
And she's just, her style in delivery is brilliant
32:41
and she just seemed relaxed
32:45
and knowledgeable at the same time,
32:48
which was a brilliant mix for the platform
32:50
that she's trying to push forward.
32:53
The Biomarker Factory platform,
32:55
which, you know, we have access to,
32:56
which allows us to interrogate different systems
33:00
with different bio fluids and et cetera
33:03
that we can look for different markers in.
33:06
But because she's so sort of knowledgeable and laid back,
33:10
you feel like it's an approachable thing for you.
33:14
She showcased the work, she showcased the abilities,
33:16
she also highlighted some of the current caveats
33:19
that were there, but delivered it
33:22
with what we can talk about how we would build this up
33:25
and how this might work for your particular samples
33:29
and how we might push forward with that
33:31
and the current strengths maybe with the gaps
33:34
in their particular data sets are currently.
33:37
So I just think overall, whilst,
33:39
again, showcasing the capabilities and like I said,
33:42
the caveats, I feel like a lot of people
33:45
might have been inspired by what is possible
33:47
and also have felt the ability to be able to go,
33:50
right, well, I can just go up to her,
33:51
chat to her about what we can do moving forwards
33:54
and that's can only be good for a platform
33:56
that's basic to be utilised by all
33:58
of the different teams across the DRI.
34:00
So I just think it's really good,
34:01
and I'm a big fan of the sort of work
34:04
that she and Henrik Zetterberg are doing
34:06
at the Biomarker Factory.
34:07
So I think the delivery of that was spot on.
34:10
So it was really good.
34:12
- Oh, that's good because I think,
34:13
yeah, it's one of those weird things
34:16
when you have platforms and researchers
34:18
and you somehow want the platforms
34:19
to be very accessible and yet,
34:22
so I think it's a definitely tough sale.
34:24
She was trying to do that.
34:26
I had another highlight from actually the same session.
34:30
That's something that my team that came back
34:32
and we just did a kind of highlight session
34:35
in the lab meeting yesterday,
34:37
and they all really enjoyed Ganna's talk from UCL.
34:40
So she's leading the, or she's co-leading the,
34:44
or she's involved with the human tissue hub
34:47
that the DRI is now setting up in combination with Holland,
34:50
Colin, who's up at Edinburgh, and Susanne's down at UCL.
34:53
And I think she gave a really interesting talk
34:56
coming kind of from the pathologist background of,
35:00
these are the different aggregates,
35:01
and she showcased the digital pathology they're doing
35:04
and the most recent preprint of kind of scanning
35:08
in a lot of archival brain tissue and analysing that.
35:11
And I thought that was something that inspired,
35:13
yeah, my ECRs and the team a lot,
35:16
and we've been kind of having long
35:18
and hard discussions about how we do neuropathology
35:20
and how best to approach it.
35:22
So that was great to kind of,
35:26
yeah, inspire students.
35:30
- Good, inspirational, I love it.
35:32
- Inspirational, yes, exactly.
35:36
Which is I guess ultimately the entire point of Connectome.
35:40
(upbeat music)
35:46
So before we close, let's zoom out a little.
35:50
What do you think were the hot areas of discovery?
35:54
What was the big takeaway?
35:58
And in your own research areas
35:59
to maybe bring it down a bit more,
36:01
what do you see as the next big challenge?
36:04
Where are we moving towards?
36:06
- Can I start? - Anyone wanna go?
36:07
Yes, go for it.
36:08
- I'll keep it brief and then we can hear from them.
36:10
I'll just give you time.
36:12
I'll just, I think, like I said before,
36:15
I and a lot of other people that I spoke to
36:19
really liked the sort of breadth
36:21
of going from basic science to,
36:25
you know, drug discovery even or testing of drugs
36:29
to hearing from individuals with dementia.
36:33
And so I think one of the things,
36:35
the big things that came over to me
36:36
was the idea of translation, translational science,
36:41
and even to a degree, although may be to a degree,
36:45
is applied science.
36:47
So the idea of trying to get our work
36:50
out from bench to bedside.
36:53
So trying to see what we can do
36:55
with the research that we're doing.
36:56
And it just came over well as to us to not have any,
37:00
not have any one stage of that have too much emphasis.
37:04
So you can see how basic science can be translated
37:08
to identifying the best targets
37:10
and the best way to then stratify those targets
37:12
and the best way to identify the best therapeutics
37:16
for those targets and then execute it.
37:18
And perhaps we need,
37:20
we obviously need more of that execution part,
37:23
but for me, the way that it was styled,
37:26
it was a doable visible thing.
37:28
And I suppose the block to that at the moment
37:33
or one of the blocks to that at the moment in,
37:35
for instance Parkinson's research is the idea
37:39
of when you would test those things.
37:42
So we currently have the ability
37:46
to identify individuals to,
37:49
you know, a fairly good positive degree
37:51
once they have the actual manifestation of the disorder.
37:55
But quite often perhaps we're working on model systems
37:58
that predate that, the upper precursors for that.
38:01
And so translation of our drug
38:04
is perhaps not working when we do take it to clinic
38:07
because it's at a different stage of the disorder.
38:10
And so I think getting biomarkers
38:14
and ways of identifying,
38:17
again, let's take Parkinson's earlier,
38:19
is gonna only help us to translate
38:21
because perhaps we can work
38:23
towards using different identified therapeutics
38:26
and tools at different phases,
38:28
really trying to stratify it
38:29
into different stuck parts of the disorder.
38:32
But yeah, for me, translation is one of the things
38:34
that really we're strongly coming across
38:36
and that's the next thing is to work out
38:38
how we get much more of the work that we're all doing
38:42
to clinic to actually help the individuals.
38:46
- Good point.
38:47
Beth? - Yeah.
38:48
- Yeah, no, I, like, second that completely.
38:51
One of the things that I really took from the conference,
38:53
and I think probably because the last session,
38:55
you know, sort of ended talking about a clinical trial was,
38:58
you know, the, how do we get to a clinical trial,
39:01
and, you know, how would that work?
39:03
What's the best way to have the clinical trials
39:05
and how do we get the most out of them?
39:07
And obviously, you know, Sarah Tabrizi's talk talking about,
39:10
you know, going from discovery and all of that,
39:12
you know, basic science work
39:14
to the actual gene therapy clinical trial.
39:17
And that sort of leads onto in my sort of area of research
39:22
in cerebral amyloid angiopathy.
39:23
There's actually the first clinical trial happening
39:26
for CAA called the Capricorn trial
39:28
and it's for both individuals with Dutch-type CAA,
39:31
which is like a familial version, so genetic.
39:33
And then, also sporadic CAA.
39:35
I mean it's like an RNA therapeutic to reduce the production
39:39
of the protein that, you know,
39:40
produces amyloid protein within the brain,
39:43
and then, which obviously goes to the vessels.
39:45
So this is super exciting 'cause in this study that,
39:48
you know, they'll be using, there'll be extracting CSF ,
39:50
and looking at, you know, species of amyloid within there.
39:53
And I think it's, you know, it's a really exciting time
39:56
for the CAA field specifically.
39:59
And I think it, you know, really hits
40:00
on these hot areas of discovery,
40:02
and, you know, how you can go from,
40:03
you know, sort of basic research up to,
40:05
you know, clinical trials. - Sure.
40:08
Tom, what do you see
40:10
as the next big challenge or opportunity?
40:13
- Well, I guess for me,
40:16
I think the emphasis around lived experience participants
40:21
coming to the Connectome,
40:25
I think, yeah, it's the inclusion of people
40:28
with lived experience in designing.
40:31
Particularly in my work where I'm trying to design a home,
40:33
a home testing device and actually really considering
40:37
the co-design process and how to make people's thoughts
40:42
feel validated and listen to
40:47
and really help that drive the sort of,
40:51
I guess the design and development of my device.
40:55
But then, yeah, and see how that affects
40:59
the progress being made in these projects.
41:01
And then, yeah, I guess how that then translates into,
41:07
yeah, commercialising these things
41:08
so that they do get to bedside.
41:12
Yeah, that was my big sort of takeaway
41:14
and the theme of the whole conference, I really felt that,
41:19
- Yeah, no, I think I agree and I think that was,
41:24
I guess ultimately the intent of the conference
41:26
and I think it was executed beautifully in that way.
41:32
So, yeah, even for the fundamental researchers,
41:35
not basic fundamental researchers-
41:36
- That's a better word, thank you.
41:38
- Oh, you're welcome. - I prefer that.
41:40
I prefer it.
41:42
- Just when you say like- - Foundational.
41:43
- Foundational, yeah, because I'm like, I do basic science.
41:45
It sounds just bit math.
41:47
- I always think it hits the ear wrong as well, yeah.
41:51
- All right, well, I think that wraps things up
41:54
for today's episode.
41:55
Huge thanks to everyone at the UK DRI
41:58
for putting together such a brilliant event.
42:00
I think we've been definitely highlighted
42:02
some of the highlights.
42:03
And of course, thank you to our great guests,
42:06
Beth, Dayne, and Tom for joining me today
42:09
and sharing such insightful reflections.
42:12
See you next time, but for now, I'm Anna Mallach,
42:14
and thank you very much for listening.
42:16
(upbeat music)
42:17
- [Voice Over] The Dementia Researcher Podcast
42:18
was brought to you by University College London,
42:21
with generous funding from the UK National Institute
42:24
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42:27
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42:30
and Race Against Dementia.
42:32
Please subscribe, leave us a review,
42:33
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42:36
to all our great resources.
42:38
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