Latest / Dementia Researcher Vodcast / Relay Podcast - Clinical Trials Advancement and Methods PIA 2026

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Relay Podcast - Clinical Trials Advancement and Methods PIA 2026 · Dementia Researcher Vodcast

• 0:00
  (gentle upbeat music)
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  - [Narrator] Hello, and welcome to season seven
• 0:04
  of the Dementia Researcher "ISTAART Relay" podcast.
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  In this series,
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  members of the ISTAART's professional interest areas
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  interview each other about their PIAs
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  and the hot topics in their fields.
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  Each guest then becomes the next episode's host,
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  passing the conversation along
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  from one researcher to the next.
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  We are releasing one episode a day in the run up
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  to the Alzheimer's Association International Conference,
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  this year in London and online,
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  showcasing the work of the ISTAART PIAs.
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  Thank you for listening.
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  (gentle guitar music)
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  - Hello and thanks for tuning in.
• 0:48
  I'm Sindhuja Tirumalai Govindarajan.
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  I'm an Alzheimer's Association research fellow
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  and postdoctoral researcher
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  at the University of Pennsylvania.
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  And over the summer, I'll be transitioning into a new role
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  as an assistant professor at the Karolinska Institute.
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  I also serve as the outgoing chair
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  on the Professional Interest Area
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  for Elevating Early Career Researchers,
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  it's shortened as PEERs PIA and this is within the ISTAART.
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  Today, I'm delighted to be talking with Dr. Carla Abdelnour
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  from the Clinical Trials Advancement and Methods PIA.
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  Hi, Carla, welcome to the show.
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  - Hi, Sindhuja.
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  - To kick things off,
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  could you introduce yourself to our listeners
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  and tell us a little bit
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  about your current work and research focus?
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  - Of course.
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  My name is Carla Abdelnour, I'm a clinician scientist,
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  and I work in Barcelona, Spain
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  at the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau
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  in the neurology department in the memory unit.
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  My work focuses
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  on studying mixed neurodegenerative diseases of ageing,
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  particularly Lewy body disease
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  with Alzheimer disease mixed pathology.
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  And what I want to do with my research
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  is to try to understand how these proteinopathies interact
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  to develop better tools for diagnosis
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  and also for treatments of our patients.
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  - That's great.
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  That's such a massive space
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  at the intersection of two very important questions.
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  How did you first get involved in this area of research?
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  - Well, that's a great question, Sindhuja.
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  I started working on this approximately 10 years ago
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  when I started my PhD.
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  And I developed my PhD on dementia with Lewy bodies
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  with Alzheimer's disease mixed pathology.
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  This I was studying in dementia with Lewy body patients
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  that have Alzheimer disease profiles at CSF.
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  So, I studied different aspects of this mixed pathology,
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  in particular, how this patient progress over time
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  because they had faster progression,
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  that's our studies have shown also.
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  We studied how that,
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  the presence of ID capacity in DLP
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  influenced the clinical presentation and atrophy patterns.
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  And all of that work was done in collaboration
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  with the European Dementia with Lewy body consortium,
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  which I'm very grateful for their help with my PhD.
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  Then I moved to the US to do my postdoctoral fellowship
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  with Professor Kathleen Poston at Stanford University.
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  And there, I was able to include
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  Parkinson's disease patients with cognitive impairment
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  that also have Alzheimer's disease biomarkers,
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  so, then I will have the full Lewy body disease spectrum
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  to study and understand the differences
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  and how the presence AD pathology influence their cognition,
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  their disease progression in general,
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  function, global cognition, et cetera.
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  And also, try to study novel biomarkers,
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  in this case, plasma markers
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  and how to interpret them
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  in this setting of mixed pathologies.
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  So, it has been great,
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  working on this field for all 10 years now
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  'cause I have been seeing the explosion
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  and this awareness of the presence of co-pathologies now
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  which is great, I'm excited to see
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  how many people now is interested in this field.
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  And, yeah, so I started working on my PhD on this.
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  It was a great opportunity,
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  at that time I was working at the, at Fundacio Ace
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  as a neurologist, and I got the opportunity
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  to join the European Dementia with Lewy body consortium
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  and work on our dementia with Lewy body cohort,
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  so that's how I dive into this field.
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  I have to be honest with you,
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  when I finished my residency as a neurologist,
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  I was interested in stroke and also movement disorders.
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  But, then I got in memory unit
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  and I fell in love with our patients
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  that have cognitive impairment because it's so interesting.
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  Our memory, our behaviour, that's what make us human.
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  And since I started neurology,
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  what I wanted to do is understand our brain
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  and how the brain works.
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  So, understanding behaviour and cognition
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  is a great way to do that.
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  So, when I got the opportunity
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  to work on dementia with Lewy bodies, it was my pure luck,
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  but I was super lucky
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  because I was able to combine my passion
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  about movement disorder, so Parkinson's disease,
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  but also cognition.
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  And I always have thought about that,
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  with sometimes we make these difference fields more,
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  a little bit arbitrary, right?
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  At the end there are all neuro reactive diseases,
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  the patients are very similar.
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  It's just sometimes because of how the,
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  these diseases have been described that we separate them,
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  but they're more similar than we think
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  and patients are very iterative in general.
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  So, I'm very happy to be kind of in both fields because we,
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  that way it gives me the opportunity to learn from one field
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  and move the information to the other,
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  so have a different perspective, I guess.
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  - I think we're kindred spirits in that.
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  I did my PhD with a different field of neurodegeneration
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  and moved to the field of ageing.
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  I worked on multiple sclerosis before
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  and there are a lot of commonalities
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  in terms of how the brain is affected.
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  And I could see like the spark in your face
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  when you're talking about how complex the brain is.
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  I agree with you that a lot of the presentations
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  perhaps even are similar
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  across a diverse spectrum of diseases.
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  But exactly how we study them is quite different, right?
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  So, for example, I'm representing the PEERs PIA today,
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  but my area of research is neuroimaging, mainly MRI focused.
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  And so, we're looking at how the path mechanisms manifest,
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  how can we study them in vivo,
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  you know, before sometimes when cognitive impairment present
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  sometimes during the process along the continuum.
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  In terms of your specific research areas,
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  am I right in understanding
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  that you're focusing more on the plasma markers
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  and as such the biofluid markers and cognition?
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  Can you tell us about the methodologies
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  you use for your research?
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  - Yes, of course, definitely. Yes.
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  So, I have been analysing biofluid biomarkers, mainly CSF.
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  More recently I also have been study plasma markers.
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  And at the beginning of my PhD I also will,
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  or during my PhD I also study MRI
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  for studying the atrophy patterns.
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  But, I think what my goal is,
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  is to work more on fluid biomarkers
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  because it's the best metrics, I guess,
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  to understand different dignopathies
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  and different processes,
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  so, that's why I'm very excited
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  that we are now able to identify alpha-synuclein at CSF.
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  I remember doing my PhD when we were not able to do that,
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  that is fairly recent,
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  and reading on the papers at the end that said like,
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  well, what we need is alpha syn biomarker
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  and now we have it.
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  And that has changed our understanding
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  of these diseases also,
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  and the awareness as I mentioned before,
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  about the frequency of mixed pathologies
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  and all the implications
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  that that will have for our patients
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  and the treatments that we decide for them.
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  So, yeah, I think I am more inclined or, I guess,
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  I guess I biassed to fluid markers
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  because we can identify different proteins
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  that reflect the proteinopathies
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  but also the pathophysiological processes
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  that might indicate this is progression or even,
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  I think I'm interested in trying to find biomarkers
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  for monitoring patients,
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  or to see if we're able to identify markers,
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  for example, for responses to treatment
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  or for better for prognosis or prediction.
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  And I guess biofluid markers are very good for that.
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  But I'm happy to incorporate other markers too
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  from, you know, imaging,
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  particularly I will be super happy
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  when we have a PET profile Synuclein that will be great
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  to see alpha-synuclein clinging the brain.
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  I think that will be super exciting.
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  - That's great.
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  One cannot argue with the specificity
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  that comes from biofluid markers
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  and how complimentary they interact
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  with other biomarkers as well, it's great to hear.
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  So, in your opinion,
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  do you think the more recent advancements
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  or discoveries that you're so excited about
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  are adequately incorporated in clinical trials?
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  Like what would you want
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  if you had a magic genie or a magic wand,
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  what wish would you want to incorporate in clinical trials
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  to fix a current problem?
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  - I think that's a great question.
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  I think one of the things that I'm very excited about
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  is to incorporate the identification
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  of different proteinopathies in clinical trials.
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  Even for inclusion or exclusion or for stratification,
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  I think maybe we can start with a stratification.
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  And that is because there is this question
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  about what happens with a patient with Alzheimer disease,
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  for example, receive a treatment for amyloid or tau
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  but also have alpha-synuclein, does that person respond
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  similar to a person that doesn't have alpha-synuclein,
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  or labri by this, right?
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  So, I think this is a fair question
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  and I definitely would love to see more clinical trials
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  trying to answer that question
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  as a secondary outcome or exploratory outcome.
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  I understand the difficulties though
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  because, right now, the alpha-synuclein
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  is available only in CSF,
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  not all clinical trials have as an inclusion criteria,
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  CSF is specifically, sometimes only you can have the PET,
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  the amyloid or tau inclusion criteria.
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  And not all clinical trials in Alzheimer's
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  does either require biomarker confirmation actually,
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  so, that's another thing.
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  But yeah, I think I understand that it's not easy,
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  but even if in a sub group of patient
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  the clinical trials could answer that.
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  And I must say
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  that there are some great setting clinical trials
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  happening on that space.
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  'Cause there are at least two that I'm aware of
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  that are going to investigate antiamyloid treatments
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  in patients that have alpha-synuclein positivities
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  of level one disease.
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  And so I'm very excited about that
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  'cause it's the first time
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  that we're going to use a treatment
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  that has been developed for this field
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  of Alzheimer's one disease
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  and we're going to treat a different population
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  that comes from the movement disorder,
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  also the Parkinson disease with cognitive impairment
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  or dementia vulnerabilities.
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  And, so for me that means that these fields are converging,
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  which is super good
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  'cause I think that cross collaboration
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  is going to teach us a lot of these.
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  And I think that's the best way also to help our patients
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  'cause at the end what we want is treatment for our patients
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  and we're going to meet different resources
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  for different patients,
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  and for personalised medicine we need that detail.
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  We need that level of detail
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  of how many proteinopathies patient has
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  in order to respond to the treatment.
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  - That's great.
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  Your excitement for the research topic
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  and for the future horizon is very obvious
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  from the way you can talk about this.
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  (upbeat music)
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  That's been really helpful to set the stage
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  for what I want to talk about next,
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  which is the work of your PIA
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  with the clinical trials and advancements PIA,
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  can I call it the CTAM PIA?
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  - Yes. - Okay, great.
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  So, clearly it's a massive interdisciplinary effort
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  with converging disease spectrums,
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  with converging proteinopathies, diverging as well,
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  which is what makes it very fascinating.
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  So, how does your PIA organise itself
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  with the different experts from statisticians to clinicians?
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  How are you organising,
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  how do you bring this work together within the PIA?
• 13:51
  - Well, I think that's a very good question.
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  In our PIA we have collaborative environment
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  and we're very open to any topic or idea
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  that somebody might have.
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  And we always try to encourage people
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  and help them and support them in moving those ideas forward
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  because usually they are within the objectives of the PIA.
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  What our PIA wants to do is we want to develop better tools
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  for synuclein clinical trials.
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  And also we have a second objective
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  that has to do with the education of people
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  about the design of clinical trials.
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  So, yeah, you're right, we're very interdisciplinary PIA
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  and I think that's a strength
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  because we can learn from different perspective,
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  and, yeah, so any idea that people have
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  and any of the members,
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  I invite them to collaborate,
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  if you have any idea
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  about something that you want to develop
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  either a webinar or a different activity or a paper,
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  just reach out to us
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  where we will support you with your idea
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  and probably put you in contact with people
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  that will help you.
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  - We will come back
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  to how people can get involved in a second,
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  but just to take a step back,
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  I'd like to highlight a little bit more
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  what were the objectives of the CTAM PIA in general?
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  I think you mentioned it already,
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  but maybe we need a specific segment of it
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  so the audience can know better.
• 15:25
  - Yes. So, our PIA is on clinical trials and methods.
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  And the methods part is,
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  I think, one of the very interesting ones
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  because what we want to do
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  is try to develop novel methods or identify methods
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  for the clinical trials
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  for Alzheimer's disease and related disorders.
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  And the second objective is to educate people about the,
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  how to conduct clinical trials?
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  What are the best methodologies
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  that you have an idea for a clinical trial?
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  Which I found fascinating and,
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  there have been a lot of webinars and different activities
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  that the PIA has developed over the years
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  to support people in this regard.
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  Info transfer are very difficult to,
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  to manage and to perform.
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  But I think with the right support that can be done.
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  So, again, if people are interested in lome one,
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  just reach out to us.
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  - Did you get involved with the CTAM PIA?
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  What brought you here?
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  - Yes, I love that question. So, I got involved in 2020.
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  It was during the pandemic.
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  I remember when I received it, that email of invite us,
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  and I thought, oh my god, that's such a great opportunity
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  because during the pandemic
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  I was working in Fundacio Ace as neurologist
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  and I was heavily involved in the clinical trial unit.
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  I was actually the deputy head of the clinical trial unit
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  and I was coordinating several clinical trials
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  and more than 100 participants in clinical trial.
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  And during the pandemic what happened was
• 17:08
  that we had that question, oh my god,
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  how are we going to cover clinical trials
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  in this situation, right?
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  All these protocols of these visits,
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  what are we going to do?
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  We have to adapt super quickly to all of that.
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  So, I thought that that will be a great opportunity
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  to reach out to people from different parts of the world
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  and understand how they were going to manage that situation.
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  It was a great opportunity in that regard.
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  I learned a lot from my colleagues around the world
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  or how they were managing that.
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  Where after that it was a great opportunity also
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  for networking.
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  I have been always interested in clinical trials
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  because I'm a clinician,
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  and I want also been able to develop better treatments
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  for my patients,
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  and clinical trials are the best way to do that, right?
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  It helps me also being up to date on the treatments
• 18:02
  that are being developed in the pipelines
• 18:05
  of the different neuroactive diseases.
• 18:07
  So, yeah, I think clinical trials are very helpful,
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  and as a researcher, it also has taught me about
• 18:16
  what is the best way to develop a protocol
• 18:20
  for a research.
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  So, if you are a researcher doing an observational study
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  or you have an idea of an observational study,
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  learn about clinical trials
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  because that will be a great foundation,
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  that is the gold standard, I would say,
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  for developing protocol for any research.
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  It's the highest level of scientific evidence,
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  so learning about clinical trials
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  is actually very helpful for your career.
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  So then, that was what brought me to the CTMP
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  and has been an amazing journey.
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  - That's great, that's such a great way to introduce
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  and highlight the contributions of the PIA.
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  Could you tell me a little bit
• 19:04
  about how it's organised in terms of roles,
• 19:08
  the structure within the PIA
• 19:09
  and how new members can potentially participate?
• 19:14
  - Yes, of course.
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  So, we're in the process
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  of updating our executive committee,
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  and currently the vice chair, Rema Raman,
• 19:25
  is the chair of our PIA,
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  she's been an amazing work during the last two years
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  and I'm very grateful for her leadership.
• 19:34
  And this year I will even a new chair of the PIA
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  and we are waiting for the elections
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  'cause we have elections just recently
• 19:43
  and we will have our new EC team,
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  which I'm, I'm looking forward to meet them
• 19:51
  either in person or virtually,
• 19:52
  we'll have a virtual coffee if needed.
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  So, yeah, we're in the process of building the new EC,
• 19:58
  but we have had an amazing EC this year
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  and the the past period and we have three working groups.
• 20:06
  And so, we have a working group on Lewy body trials
• 20:10
  that I work on in collaboration
• 20:13
  with the Lewy body dementia PIA.
• 20:15
  We also have another working group
• 20:18
  on diverse representation across the flow
• 20:23
  and we have another one about remote assessments
• 20:29
  in clinical trials.
• 20:30
  So, we have several working groups
• 20:33
  and if people want to be involved
• 20:35
  in any of these working groups of have other ideas,
• 20:38
  please reach out,
• 20:39
  and I'll be happy to talk with you about your ideas
• 20:43
  and how to get involved more actively.
• 20:47
  - Thank you, yeah,
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  I'm aware of some of the programming you offer
• 20:51
  because I think our PIAs
• 20:52
  have been collaborating for webinars or information sessions
• 20:57
  even before I was part of it.
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  In terms of programming that's related to the upcoming AIC,
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  what kind of sessions do you offer,
• 21:06
  scientific, career development?
• 21:08
  Could you share a little bit
• 21:10
  about what new members or interested parties can attend
• 21:14
  or look out for at AIC?
• 21:17
  - Yes. So during AIC, I encourage people to come to the PRA.
• 21:23
  There is going to be an amazing discussion,
• 21:26
  a panel discussion on global representation
• 21:28
  in clinical trials.
• 21:29
  This is something that we have been discussing a lot
• 21:32
  during the past three years.
• 21:34
  Rema and Jorge Libre, Rema Raman and Jorge Libre
• 21:38
  are leading that effort with the working group
• 21:41
  and that is going to be a launch at the AIC.
• 21:45
  And, so, please come to our PIA deck.
• 21:47
  I think it's going to be an amazing discussion.
• 21:50
  And, in addition to that,
• 21:51
  we have an FRS on the similar topic on representation
• 21:56
  that is led also by Rema.
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  I don't recall the exact details,
• 22:03
  but, just reach out
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  'cause I haven't checked the programme in detail just yet,
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  but, we're going to have an FRS on clinical trials
• 22:14
  from the CTAM PIA.
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  And I'll be in London,
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  so, if you have questions
• 22:20
  about how to get involved more actively,
• 22:22
  we're always asking for members input or ideas.
• 22:27
  We, I think we're very open PIA,
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  and one of the things that we want to do for next year,
• 22:34
  in addition to continue the work from the previous EC
• 22:38
  is to continue the increase of the engagement
• 22:42
  of the members,
• 22:43
  in particularly, the early career members
• 22:46
  that might be interested
• 22:47
  in clinical trail design or methods.
• 22:51
  So, yeah, reach out to me, I'll be happy to,
• 22:54
  to give you my contact then we have, can have
• 22:57
  more personal discussion about your ideas
• 23:00
  or how to get involved.
• 23:03
  - Great.
• 23:04
  I particularly like your mention of early career researchers
• 23:07
  because that's the objective of my PIA, which is PEERs PIA,
• 23:12
  that I represent.
• 23:14
  In terms of easier involvement,
• 23:17
  you also have an EC position
• 23:21
  for early career researchers, right?
• 23:23
  - Yes, that's correct. - Can you-
• 23:24
  - Yeah.
• 23:25
  - Although the elections are done for this year,
• 23:27
  can you tell us a little bit
• 23:28
  about what kind of activities have those ECR
• 23:32
  executive committee members gotten involved in in the past?
• 23:37
  - Yes, in the past the is,
• 23:39
  there literary researchers have been involved in helping us
• 23:43
  with the, in review webinar.
• 23:48
  And that year actually the,
• 23:50
  we used to do two segments of that within one webinar talk,
• 23:55
  but, because we want to talk about pharmacological trials
• 23:59
  and non-pharmacological trials.
• 24:01
  And as you can imagine, Sindhuja, that's a lot of work.
• 24:05
  But people have done an amazing work.
• 24:07
  I remember last time it was Erina who took on the,
• 24:12
  from trials I remember,
• 24:15
  and I'm very sorry 'cause I don't remember the other person,
• 24:18
  but, I think, it was an amazing summary of what has happened
• 24:22
  because clinical trials is such a big field, right?
• 24:25
  There are a lot of clinical trials
• 24:26
  happening within one year, so.
• 24:29
  I think, but, I think it's a good opportunity
• 24:31
  for being up to date of what is happening,
• 24:36
  and I think we are going to continue to do that.
• 24:40
  In addition, I think also
• 24:42
  we might want to consider discussing novel methodologies,
• 24:46
  not only focusing on the chemical trials
• 24:49
  from the pharm or non-pharm side,
• 24:51
  but also what are new methodologies
• 24:53
  that people are developing
• 24:56
  for designing clinical trials.
• 24:58
  - [Sindhuja] So,
• 24:59
  so in what ways do you think the methodologies
• 25:02
  or techniques that you use for clinical trials different
• 25:07
  from what's used in research studies?
• 25:09
  Like what are the challenges that one might not know about
• 25:13
  if they've only been exposed to,
• 25:14
  you know, research prospective studies like that?
• 25:19
  - Yes, I think that's a very good question.
• 25:22
  I guess, well, the clinical trials
• 25:24
  since they are organising different phases
• 25:28
  and each phase has some main objective,
• 25:31
  you will identify your outcomes
• 25:35
  depending on the phase that your studies.
• 25:38
  So, for example, if you are conducting a phase two trial
• 25:42
  where you want to study safety and tolerability,
• 25:46
  your outcomes will have to reflect that,
• 25:49
  although you can incorporate as a secondary outcomes,
• 25:53
  cognition function or other aspects that your interest,
• 25:58
  for example, biomarker changes
• 26:02
  as an exploratory markers, et cetera.
• 26:04
  Now, when you have a project or a research question,
• 26:09
  you will be designing your methods
• 26:12
  for answering that specific question, right?
• 26:15
  You are going to design your experiment
• 26:18
  to answer that question
• 26:19
  and you will identify what are the outcomes
• 26:21
  that I have to measure to answer my research question.
• 26:26
  What I think might be similar between two approaches
• 26:30
  is how to develop the protocol, for example,
• 26:33
  you will have to identify
• 26:35
  what are the occlusion and inclusion criteria
• 26:38
  for their subjects.
• 26:40
  You are going to have to identify
• 26:42
  all the outcome measures and describe them.
• 26:44
  You have to calculate your sample size
• 26:46
  to know you have enough people involved or samples or X
• 26:53
  to answer your research question, which is very important
• 26:56
  in both clinical trials and research studies.
• 27:01
  And so, I think having all that prepared beforehand,
• 27:05
  before doing the actual study is super helpful.
• 27:08
  So, I think the way that clinical trails is structure
• 27:13
  is translatable the most part to observational studies,
• 27:17
  has a similar to-do list.
• 27:22
  This is when you are designing an observational study.
• 27:24
  - Clinical trial design is very complex
• 27:27
  and interdisciplinary it looks like.
• 27:30
  You previously mentioned
• 27:32
  what you would like to see ideally in a new clinical trial
• 27:36
  with the incorporation of
• 27:39
  like a magic wish of PET alpha-synuclein.
• 27:42
  But, in terms of recent studies that have shown success,
• 27:46
  is there a particular study
• 27:47
  that sounds very exciting to you, very promising
• 27:51
  that you want to see more of?
• 27:55
  - Such a good question.
• 27:56
  So, do you mean research study
• 27:59
  or a clinical trial in particular?
• 28:00
  - Clinical. - A clinical trial?
• 28:01
  - I mean a clinical trial in specific, yeah.
• 28:05
  - Yes, yes.
• 28:06
  So, I went to ADPD recently in Copenhagen
• 28:11
  and they presented a clinical trial
• 28:15
  that is going to investigate total a map
• 28:18
  in people with Lewy body.
• 28:22
  So yeah, I'm very excited about that clinical trial.
• 28:25
  It is a phase two trial.
• 28:27
  It has been done also collaboration
• 28:29
  with the Lewy Body Dementia Association and,
• 28:33
  and that has been an effort that has been led
• 28:35
  by Charles Shaw from Stanford and Dokavaskov from UCSD.
• 28:40
  So, I'm very, yeah, super happy to see that.
• 28:43
  'cause I just, I just, I need to know,
• 28:46
  I need to know if this, this,
• 28:49
  these treatments also work in the population
• 28:51
  of data clinical phenotype that is for samples
• 28:56
  Lewy body disease, but have the percents of amagoic data.
• 29:02
  - Thank you for sharing that.
• 29:04
  (upbeat music)
• 29:10
  What advice would you have for someone who is new to ISTAART
• 29:13
  or Alzheimer's Association in general in this field of work?
• 29:18
  How do you think it has helped you
• 29:20
  to be involved outside of research advancements alone?
• 29:25
  - Yes. I think that's a very important question.
• 29:28
  I will say reach out to members from different PIAs
• 29:33
  from your main interest.
• 29:37
  I think people is very open to extend their experience,
• 29:41
  so, if you reach out to people
• 29:43
  and ask them about their experiences,
• 29:45
  if you are interested in getting involved more actively
• 29:49
  in any of the activities, just reach out to people.
• 29:53
  Also, you can reach out
• 29:54
  to the Alzheimer's Association and the PIA directly.
• 29:58
  I think their leadership team is amazing.
• 30:00
  They, they're doing an amazing job helping us
• 30:04
  to build this network of collaborators across the world.
• 30:09
  So, you have any questions,
• 30:11
  I think that's also a great resource.
• 30:13
  There is a lot of information on the PIA website
• 30:16
  about the different PIAs if you want to check that also,
• 30:21
  because there are a lot of opportunities
• 30:23
  and you might have different interests,
• 30:25
  not only on one field, but different fields.
• 30:28
  And you can definitely be a member
• 30:30
  of several PIAs at the same time
• 30:33
  and different working fields too.
• 30:36
  I will also say that it's an amazing opportunity
• 30:41
  to meet people, to discuss ideas,
• 30:45
  and at the end, to move the field forward, Sindhuja,
• 30:48
  because this is such a complex problem.
• 30:52
  We want to develop better diagnostic tools,
• 30:55
  a better treatments for our patients.
• 30:58
  And we're not going to do that alone,
• 31:01
  we need a big team, a global team.
• 31:04
  And the Alzheimer's Association with the PIAs
• 31:06
  are doing that.
• 31:08
  So, I'm very happy to be part of the PIA,
• 31:10
  and I will say that if you interest, just reach out.
• 31:14
  We need more people working on this problems,
• 31:16
  more ring trying to answer these questions.
• 31:20
  So yes, just come onboard and help us to end dementia.
• 31:26
  - Well said, we cannot do this alone,
• 31:28
  we have to work together on that.
• 31:30
  I think that is a fantastic wrap up for the podcast so far.
• 31:35
  Thank you all for listening.
• 31:36
  This is the last show in the season for 2026.
• 31:40
  ISTAART PIAs are a great way, like Carla mentioned,
• 31:43
  to expand your network, find new collaborators,
• 31:47
  and learn more about Alzheimer's and dementia field
• 31:50
  in general.
• 31:52
  We hope that these podcasts
• 31:53
  have inspired you to get involved
• 31:55
  and you can find the profiles on myself
• 31:58
  and our wonderful guest, Carla,
• 32:00
  and information on how to become involved in the ISTAART
• 32:03
  on our website at dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk,
• 32:10
  and also at www.alz.org/istaart,
• 32:19
  or, for simpler terms, Google ISTAART
• 32:22
  and it'll take you there.
• 32:24
  We're looking forward to seeing you at the AIC conference,
• 32:27
  so, if you haven't already registered,
• 32:29
  visit alz.org for more information
• 32:32
  and come find us and say hello.
• 32:34
  Thank you. Bye.
• 32:36
  - Thank you. Bye.
• 32:40
  - [Narrator] You have been listening to the "Relay" podcast,
• 32:42
  delivered as a collaboration
• 32:44
  between Dementia researcher and ISTAART.
• 32:47
  This podcast is made at University College London
• 32:50
  with generous funding from the NIHR, Race Against Dementia,
• 32:55
  Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Research UK,
• 32:59
  and the Alzheimer's Society.
• 33:02
  Please like and subscribe
• 33:03
  and share your thoughts in the comments.
• 33:08
  (gentle upbeat music)