AEHRC’s Vincent Dore awarded prestigious de Leon Prize in Neuroimaging
The 2024 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference® in Philadelphia has only just kicked off and AEHRC scientists are already making waves.
Vincent Dore, part of the AEHRC’s neuroimaging team, received the 2024 de Leon Prize Neuroimaging Senior Scientist award for his paper CenTauR: Toward a universal scale and masks for standardizing tau imaging studies.
The paper explores methods of studying tau protein build-up in the brain, a key factor in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.
To image tau, special molecules (‘tracers’) that bind to the protein are injected into the body. When the brain is viewed using positron emission tomography (PET imaging), the signal emitted by the tracers can be interpreted to determine the distribution and amount of tau protein in the brain.
However, differences in tracer properties and measurement methods make it difficult to standardise and compare results across studies. This paper introduces a new method called CenTauR, which standardises tau PET results across different tracers.
The finding of the paper aid clinical and research applications and contribute to a better understanding of how tau relates to cognitive decline and neurodegeneration.
Congratulations to Vincent and the team on the incredible achievement.
The Australian e-Health Research Centre (AEHRC) is CSIRO's digital health research program and a joint venture between CSIRO and the Queensland Government. The AEHRC works with state and federal health agencies, clinical research groups and health businesses around Australia.