Lesley Cheng

There is no consensus for a blood based test for early Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Deregulation of gene expression has been found to be informative for understanding different biological states. microRNA (miRNA) are small non-coding RNA species that are transcriptionally processed in the host cell. Normally involved in post-transcriptional gene silencing, the deregulation of miRNA has been shown to influence pathogenesis of a number of diseases. miRNA has been found to travel in small membranous microvesicles known as exosomes which can be released extracellularly into the bloodstream. My research involves determining the changes of miRNA expression in exosomes which can be isolated from the blood and profiled using Next-Generation deep sequencing. The significance of this method is to determine a set of differential RNA biomarkers between healthy and AD patients.

Samples are obtained from the Australian Imaging, Biomakers and Lifestyle Flagship Study of Aging (AIBL) which is an Australian Flagship study committed to discovering the biomarkers and lifestyle factors that determine the prevalence of AD. This project represents a vital step towards developing a cost-effective and non-invasive diagnostic test to detect the onset and monitor various stages of AD.

Journal articles

L Cheng, J D Doecke, R A Sharples, V L Villemagne, C J Fowler, A Rembach, R N Martins, C C Rowe, S L Macaulay, C L Masters, A F Hill and for the Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle (AIBL) Research GroupMolecular Psychiatry. (2014) Prognostic serum miRNA biomarkers associated with Alzheimer’s disease shows concordance with neuropsychological and neuroimaging assessment. Molecular Psychiatry. doi:10.1038/mp.2014.127

Dr Cheng research also received global media attention.

Dr Cheng is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow based at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Melbourne.