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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).

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    More information and references

    More information and references

    References:

    • Cordeiro MF et al. (2010) Imaging multiple phases of neurodegeneration: a novel approach to assessing cell death in vivo, Cell Death and Disease 1, e3; doi:10.1038/cddis.2009.3
    • Guo L, Duggan L, Cordeiro MF (2010) Alzheimer’s Disease and Retinal Neurodegeneration, Current Alzheimer Research, 7(1): 3-14

      ◄Audio track (~12 mins)Evaluation►