In episode 19 we chat with Dr Megan Eldred, Senior Policy Advisor and Dementia Mission Lead at the Office for Life Sciences.

Megan walked us through her journey from PhD and potential academia, to transition into the UK Civil Service and the work she does with the Office for Life Sciences. She told us about her journey to becoming the senior policy adviser and dementia mission lead on everything that entails.

More generally, the Mission aims to develop novel precision medicine tools that help boost the number and speed of clinical trials in dementia neurodegeneration. This is a much-needed and highly impactful endeavour. We all know somebody who is suffering from or who has suffered from dementia. It is devastating and still has massive unmet clinical needs and is a huge cost and burden to society that is a burden that is getting bigger because of an ageing population.

Megan talked about some interesting scientific and commercial developments in this field, including the approval of two drugs to slow the progression of dementia. We spoke about cures for Alzheimer's disease and how close and how far away we are. We also spoke about psychedelics, exercise, the mind-body connection and burnout.

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Timestamps:

00:00:00:00 -Intro

00:01:51:04 - Dr McIlroy’s neurodegenerative family history

00:04:01:20 - Dutch care home designed for dementia

00:04:43:02 - Japanese robotic seal

00:06:35:06 - Pet dogs and our microbiome

00:07:41:10 - Link between microbiome and depression

00:09:17:07 - Mice research

00:11:44:02 - Can the microbiome cure depression longterm?

00:13:30:01 - How habits are formed

00:15:22:27 - Addictions and their cure

00:19:15:28 - Fight or flight responses

00:25:41:01 - Building resilience

00:27:57:24 - Choosing a career path

00:30:36:20 - Undertaking a physiology degree

00:33:03:02 - Unknown unknowns

00:35:50:08 - The cell fate in the retina

00:37:55:24 - Intelligent design?

00:41:55:10 - Micro-dosing

00:49:33:11 - Understanding the retina

00:55:10:29 - Starting a career in the civil service

00:59:13:24 - Scientists working for the government

01:04:59:23 - Centre for Science and Policy

01:08:59:15 - Role as lead at Office for Life Sciences

01:14:46:09 - Focus on biomarkers

01:17:52:04 - Drugs approval for treating dimensia

01:20:10:10 - Understanding the disease pathway

01:24:51:08 - Funding research

01:26:44:21 - Our Future Health

01:34:28:01 - Sharing IP with competitors

01:39:45:24 - CSF testing

01:41:51:12 - Inflammation and the disease pathway

01:43:13:15 - Vaccine for cognitive disease?

01:46:19:27 - Conclusion