Jereme Spiers

Alzheimer’s disease is an incurable neurodegenerative disease caused by the misfolding and build-up of key proteins, which causes the death of specialised brain cells called neurons. It has been suggested that affected cells transmit these damaged proteins to healthy cells, together with several other factors altering the course of the disease, resulting in further Alzheimer’s disease progression.

The cells may do this by packaging these proteins in small membrane-bound packets known as extracellular vesicles (EVs). EVs carry the language specific to each cell into their surroundings, which lets different cell types and brain regions communicate. Although EVs are known to facilitate the progression of neurodegenerative diseases, the lack of sensitive technology means very little is known about which proteins EVs communicate from specific cell types within the brain. New techniques allow researchers to obtain EVs from human brain tissues and advances in technology enable EVs to be characterised with exquisite sensitivity. 

Using these techniques, Dr Jereme Spiers observed increased, modified and differently packaged Alzheimer’s disease-related proteins in EVs from Alzheimer’s disease tissues. By understanding how these altered proteins are carried throughout the brain by affected cells, he could understand how specific populations of EVs contribute to inflammation and other underlying causes of Alzheimer's disease.

Read more about this exciting project

At the time of this award, Dr Jereme Spiers was a postdoctoral research fellow investigating mechanisms of neurodegeneration in the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University.