DOCUMENT

18 Headlines TWENTY YEARS ON Dr Erin Cawston Dr Erin Cawston, from the Centre for Brain Research, co-leads the Dementia Prevention Research Clinics’ Tissue Bank. She says the support she has received from the Neurological Foundation has helped her reach levels in her research she could only dream of. H er trailblazing research is investigating blood tests to measure levels of protein associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) in the blood, with the aim of helping clinicians to identify AD in the earliest stages. Dr Cawston has been collaborating with world leaders in the field from the University of Gothernburg in Sweden, who have been making headlines globally for their recent study into a blood test, called ptau217, that has high accuracy at detecting the biological changes seen in AD. It is hoped that blood tests such as this may be available in some countries in as little as five years, and Dr Cawston hopes her work in this area, along with others at the Dementia Prevention Research Clinics, will stimulate conversation about how these tests might be incorporated into the NewZealand health system. Although we don’t have the treatments yet, researchers are working on drugs to stop or slow down AD progression in its early stages, so detecting the disease early on via blood work could be groundbreaking. Likemany NewZealanders, Dr Cawston has a personal connection with dementia, having watched her maternal grandfather battle AD, making the discovery of potential tests and treatments especially close to her heart. Dr Cawston has a background in Medical Laboratory Science (diagnostics) which led her to a specific research field called molecular pharmacology of brain receptors – an area in which she completed her doctoral studies in after receiving a Miller Postgraduate Scholarship for from the Neurological Foundation 20 years ago, in 2004. Shortly after the completion of her PhD, Dr Cawston was lured to the United States where she spent three years working with Professor Larry Miller at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona. Dr Cawston may have continued her career overseas for the longer term if it had not been for the Neurological Foundation Repatriation Fellowship which she was awarded in 2011, enticing her back home to the Centre for Brain Research. In 2017 she joined the Dementia Prevention Research Clinics with the aim of advancing knowledge of blood biomarkers for AD. Last year she received a project grant from the Neurological Foundation to measure the levels of two specific blood markers for the AD pathological protein known as Tau while on an overseas fellowship at the University of Gothenburg. Her work is currently supported by the Dementia Prevention Research Clinics Trust and the Hugh Green Foundation. How has the Neurological Foundation supported your research? I have been privileged to be supported by the Neurological Foundation throughout my career at different times. The Neurological Foundation Miller Postgraduate Scholarship started me on this journey and the Neurological Foundation Repatriation Fellowship enabled me to come back to Aotearoa New Zealand to carry on my research career. Nowmany years later the Neurological Foundation has also funded my work as a principal investigator. Things have come in full circle now and I have a new PhD student (Harriet Spoelstra) beginning her research career under my supervision and co-supervised by Professors Mike Dragunow and Lynette Tippett. Harriet has just been awarded a doctoral scholarship from the Neurological Foundation. Has therebeenabig ‘aha’ moment or turningpoint for you in the last 20years? We come tomany forks in the road along our careers. My career trajectory to date has not taken themost direct route, but through the journey I have been able to identify what I really want to be doing, ‘my why’. One big ‘aha’ moment for me was when the Dementia Prevention Research Clinics (DPRCs) were being established. I was attending one of our clinic meetings with all the various people involved. I was surrounded by neurologists, clinicians, neuropsychologists, nurses, imaging experts and other researchers, everyone talking with such passion about their different areas and howwe could do the very best research in our respective areas for our participants, New Zealanders and dementia research. It was then I felt part of something bigger. What’s next? In the short term, I hope to do more work with my DPRCs colleagues and our wonderful participants, families and friends. My aim is to utilise the research I am part of, within the DPRCs, to help inform the use of fluid biomarkers in AD moving forward within the New Zealand health system. I also wish to investigate in parallel to AD, new fluid biomarkers for other neurodegenerative and neurological disorders.