Lesley Cheng Sim, PhD, Research Officer, Biochemistry, at La Trobe University, discusses extracellular vesicles (EVs) and her work as a Molecular Biologist.

Lesley received her PhD from Monash University in 2008; she is a postdoctoral researcher. Before attaining her PhD, Lesley earned a Bachelor of Medical Science from La Trobe University. She has extensive training as a Cell and Molecular Biologist, specifically in the area of neuronal death and survival.

Podcast Points:

• What are extracellular vesicles?
• Can exosomes be utilized to deliver therapeutics?
• New paths to understanding Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s

Lesley talks about her background and the field of extracellular vesicles. As she states, her lab is one of the early labs to do research in the field. She talks about cellular issues and neuronal death. And she provides information on the methods they use to isolate exosomes from the blood. 

The research PhD discusses the three primary areas of research in their lab—the role of exosomes in the pathology of degenerative diseases, the isolation of exosomes from the blood to be used as diagnostic tools, and the exploitation of exosomes to be used as a vehicle for the delivery of therapeutics.

She goes on to discuss the degenerative diseases they focus a great deal of their research upon, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. She talks about early diagnosis options, and how they use exosomes to find disease indicators. 

Continuing, the PhD EV expert talks in detail about the detection of RNA changes, their experimentation in the lab, and how this information can provide valuable insight, illuminating important disease indicators and markers. 

Lesley’s innovative research is clearing a path for new and important knowledge of degenerative diseases and various health conditions, to be harvested and implemented as we move forward into personalized medicine.

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