Attending to the ups and downs of Lewy body dementia: An exploration of cognitive fluctuations
Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD) share similarities in pathology and clinical presentation and come under the umbrella term of Lewy body dementias (LBD). Fluctuating cognition is a key symptom in LBD and manifests as altered levels of alertness and attention, with a marked difference between best and worst performance. Cognition and alertness can change over seconds or minutes to hours and days of obtundation. Cognitive fluctuations can have significant impacts on the quality of life of people with LBD as well as potentially contribute to the exacerbation of other transient symptoms including, for example, hallucinations and psychosis as well as making it difficult to measure cognitive effect size benefits in clinical trials of LBD. However, this significant symptom in LBD is poorly understood. In my presentation I will discuss the phenomenology of cognitive fluctuations, how we can measure it clinically and limitations of these approaches. I will then outline the work of our group and others which has been focussed on unpicking the aetiological basis of cognitive fluctuations in LBD using a variety of imaging approaches (e.g. SPECT, sMRI, fMRI and EEG). I will then briefly explore future research directions.
Growing a world-class precision medicine industry
Monash Biomedical Imaging is part of the new $71.2 million Australian Precision Medicine Enterprise (APME) facility, which will deliver large-scale development and manufacturing of precision medicines and theranostic radiopharmaceuticals for industry and research. A key feature of the APME project is a high-energy cyclotron with multiple production clean rooms, which will be located on the Monash Biomedical Imaging (MBI) site in Clayton. This strategic co-location will facilitate radiochemistry, PET and SPECT research and clinical use of theranostic (therapeutic and diagnostic) radioisotopes produced on-site. In this webinar, MBI’s Professor Gary Egan and Dr Maggie Aulsebrook will explain how the APME will secure Australia’s supply of critical radiopharmaceuticals, build a globally competitive Australian manufacturing hub, and train scientists and engineers for the Australian workforce. They will cover the APME’s state-of-the-art 30 MeV and 18-24 MeV cyclotrons and radiochemistry facilities, as well as the services that will be accessible to students, scientists, clinical researchers, and pharmaceutical companies in Australia and around the world. The APME is a collaboration between Monash University, Global Medical Solutions Australia, and Telix Pharmaceuticals. Professor Gary Egan is Director of Monash Biomedical Imaging, Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function and a Distinguished Professor at the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University. He is also lead investigator of the Victorian Biomedical Imaging Capability, and Deputy Director of the Australian National Imaging Facility. Dr Maggie Aulsebrook obtained her PhD in Chemistry at Monash University and specialises in the development and clinical translation of radiopharmaceuticals. She has led the development of several investigational radiopharmaceuticals for first-in-human application. Maggie leads the Radiochemistry Platform at Monash Biomedical Imaging.