Senior Lecturer

Dr Michael Valenzuela

Research

Reversal of Age-associated Cognitive Decline using Skin-to-Neuron Technology
Dementia affects over 23 million individuals worldwide, with projections of a 75% increase in Australia over the next 20 years because of the ageing population. Replacement of lost synapses and neurons, which are key pathological feature of dementia, is a potential future treatment through the use of stem cells. In this study we are exploring the efficacy of skin-derived neural stem cells to reverse age-related cognitive decline in a number of preclinical animal models.