Science at UM [S01-ep25]: From Alzheimer's disease to the Charles Flahault heritage fund
This week on A l’UM la science, Fabrice Caudron, a researcher at the Institute of Molecular Genetics in Montpellier, is our guest. He and his team have just discovered that a plant substance could protect the neurons of Alzheimer's patients. In the second part of the program, Elizabeth Denton, library curator, introduces us to the Charles Flahault heritage collection.
In France, it is estimated that 1,200,000 people could be affected by Alzheimer's disease or a related illness. 750,000 people have now been diagnosed, representing 23% of the population over the age of 80, the majority of whom are women. For most people, Alzheimer's, named after the German doctor who discovered it in 1906, is primarily associated with memory loss.
Personally, I remember the day we realized that my grandmother was " losing her marbles," as we say in my family, in a way that was a little more severe than her age alone could explain. "He had 7,000 cancer cells," she repeated to us a dozen times in an hour when talking about a sick neighbor. A month and several tests later, the verdict came down: stage 2 Alzheimer's, a degenerative disease that has three stages. I later discovered that while memory loss was certainly the most striking symptom, it was unfortunately not the only one: behavioral, motor, and language disorders... These were caused by lesions in the central nervous system due to the malfunctioning of proteins essential to neurons and the appearance of plaques or aggregates on those same neurons.
Fabrice Caudron is a researcher atthe Institute of Molecular Genetics in Montpellier. Together with his team, he has recently discovered that a substance found in a plant could protect the neurons of Alzheimer's patients. He will explain everything to us in the next twenty minutes.
Read:
- Tripentadecanoin, a promising molecule against neurodegeneration
- A rare natural lipid induces neuroglobin expression to prevent amyloid oligomer toxicity and retinal neurodegeneration
In the second part of the program, we take you behind the scenes at the science library, and more specifically to the storeroom, which houses a number of treasures, including the Charles Flahault heritage collection. This is a collection of photographic plates and prints taken during the famous botanist's field trips. Elizabeth Denton, library curator, takes us on a journey through these archives.
At UM Science, you have the program, so let's get started!
Production: Universityof Montpellier/Divergence FM
Host: Lucie Lecherbonnier
Interview: AlinePériault/Lucie Lecherbonnier
Reporting: Aline Périault
Editing: Bruno Bertrand
Production: AdelineFloch’
Listen to the program “A LUM LA SCIENCE” on Divergence FM 93.9
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