The two speakers who will be presenting lectures are:
Professor James Vickers, Wicking Dementia Centre:
Disease modification and risk reduction: new approaches to tackling dementia and
Professor Alison Venn, Deputy Director of the Menzies Institute for Medical Research:
Investigating the childhood origins of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes
Professor James Vickers: Disease modification and risk reduction: new approaches to tackling dementia.
With the ageing of the world-wide population and the lack of effective therapeutic interventions, the numbers of people with dementia will increase dramatically over the next few decades. There are a number of diseases that cause dementia, the majority of which are degenerative and progressive, involving specific pathological changes in the brain on the background of ageing. Once substantial neuronal degeneration has occurred, it is not likely that this pathology can be reversed. Hence, there is substantial research interest currently in slowing or eliminating pathology at the very earliest stages of disease, potentially before overt symptoms, or targeting modifiable risk factors throughout life to delay dementia. The Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre is working at identifying the earliest brain changes that lead to dementia as well as new approaches to inhibit such pathology. The Centre also has a major interventional project, the Tasmanian Healthy Brain Project, investigating whether complex mental stimulation in mid to later life may help reduce ageing-related cognitive decline and risk of dementia. In addition, we are undertaking laboratory studies on how cognitive enrichment may boost brain plasticity.
James Vickers holds the positions of Chair of Pathology, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Health and Co-Director of the Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre at the University of Tasmania. His qualifications include a Bachelor of Science, PhD and Doctor of Science. He is also currently a board member of the Royal Hobart Hospital Research Foundation, Chair of the Scientific Panel for the Alzheimer’s Australia Dementia Research Foundation and President of the Australasian Neuroscience Society.
Professor Alison Venn: Investigating the childhood origins of (adult) cardiovascular disease and diabetes
Professor Alison Venn is an epidemiologist and Deputy Director of the Menzies Institute for Medical Research. Her interests are in the epidemiology of chronic disease with a particular focus on obesity and lifestyle risk factors. She leads the Childhood Determinants of Adult Health Study – a national follow-up of 8,500 Australian children investigating childhood influences on cardiovascular disease and diabetes risk in adulthood, and is an investigator on a major US-funded collaboration pooling similar data from 40,000 children across three countries.
Wednesday 11 November, 6.30 pm Sir Stanley Burbury Theatre, UTAS, Churchill Avenue, Sandy Bay (entry from Churchill Avenue)
All interested people are welcome. Free admission.
