PhD defence Qingfeng Wen

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease, MicroRNA, Biomarker, Bioinformatics

"An Integrative miRNA Approach to Alzheimer's Disease: From Peripheral Biomarkers to Central Brain Mechanisms"

Alzheimer’s disease damages the brain long before memory problems appear, making early detection vital. My research focuses on "microRNAs"—tiny microscopic messengers found in our blood and brain that act as switches controlling how our genes behave.

First, we discovered that environmental toxins, like lifelong lead exposure, alter these messengers in the blood. This leaves a biological fingerprint that mirrors hidden damage happening inside the brain decades before symptoms start. Second, we found that Alzheimer’s does not attack the brain uniformly; in a specific region highly vulnerable to the disease, certain messengers malfunction and act like a broken alarm, keeping harmful brain inflammation permanently turned on.

Finally, we translated these findings into a practical screening tool. Instead of relying on expensive brain scans or painful spinal taps, we identified a specific messenger in the blood that serves as an early warning signal. When combined with a simple memory test, this blood marker can accurately spot the earliest stages of memory decline, opening the door to painless and affordable community screening.

Click here for the live stream.