Title: Blood Tests for Brain Health in Aging
Summary: Neurological blood-based biomarkers are being widely investigated for use in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. These biomarkers can inform on the underlying disease specific pathology, as well as general neurodegeneration processes. This presentation will introduce these biomarkers and discuss how they change with aging, spanning early childhood into older adulthood. It will highlight the importance of understanding this relationship to be able to accurately interpret biomarker results. A special focus of this presentation will be the investigation of these biomarkers in a cognitively resilient senior population, enabling us to understand what these biomarkers can and cannot tell us about healthy aging.
Speaker Biography: Jennifer Cooper is a PhD candidate in the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine department at the University of British Columbia. She conducts her research under the supervision of Dr. Cheryl Wellington at the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health. Jennifer researches the use of neurological blood-based biomarkers in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. She focuses on gaining a deeper understanding of biomarker levels across the full spectrum of health by describing normative populations across the life span, investigating cognitively resilient populations, and assessing biomarker utility for diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
Participants may attend the seminar in-person at the Rudy North Lecture Theatre in the Centre for Brain Health at UBC, or virtually via Zoom. Zoom details for virtual attendance can be found below. A light lunch will be provided for all those attending in-person.
To join over Zoom:
Zoom Meeting ID: 91067 972164 | Passcode: 972164
Step 1: Open https://ubc.zoom.us/ and click on ‘Join a Meeting’.
Step 2: Enter the 11 digit Zoom Meeting ID & click ‘Join.’
Step 3: If you have the Zoom client, click ‘Open Zoom Meetings,’ otherwise, click ‘join from your browser.’
Step 4: Enter the passcode in the passcode field & click ‘Join Meeting.’