Course: Using Retinal Cell Death to Diagnose Alzheimer's, Section: Learning objectives

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Course Summary

Using retinal cell death to diagnose Alzheimer's - Francesca Cordeiro and Gwyneth Morgan (11:59)

A team of scientists at University College London, led by Professor Francesca Cordeiro, is working on a new way of diagnosing major neurological disease by a simple eye test. The technique uses fluorescent markers to show evidence of nerve cell death in the retina, providing “a window to the brain” without having to rely on expensive MRI. Although the research has so far only been tested on mice, the team plan to run human tests by the end of the year. Gwyneth Morgan discusses these advances with Professor Cordeiro.

First published in DOCET OQ74 (2010).

Learning objectives

To provide listeners with:

An outline of a new way of diagnosing Alzheimer's via a simple eye test
An understanding of how the test uses fluorescent markers to show evidence of nerve cell death in the retina providing a window into the brain without having to depend on MRI
An understanding of how this could impact the diagnosis of Alzheimer's
An outline of the current and planned research on the issue undertaken by scientists at University College London