• Question: do your findings save lives?

    Asked by Alan to Ian, David, Helen on 22 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by lulusheepdog.
    • Photo: Ian van der Linde

      Ian van der Linde answered on 11 Jun 2011:

      My work does not directly save lives. Most of my work is concerned with trying to understand how the brain acquires, stores, processes and retrieves visual information. Because there are so many unanswered questions in this area, it’s too early for my work to be used in medicine. Here’s an example. My colleagues and I are working on a project to help understand the effects of neurological diseases better, including Alzheimer’s, which we hope will eventually be used to improve sufferer’s lives, but at the moment we are just trying to find out exactly how patient’s memories are affected, and to develop a test for earlier diagnosis so that early treatment can be given.

    • Photo: Helen Fletcher

      Helen Fletcher answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      I hope they will! We’re trying to make a Tuberculosis vaccine that will stop people from getting infected, and that could save millions of lives. At the moment, about a third of the entire world’s population is infected with TB, and it causes nearly 2 million deaths per year. A vaccine could really improve this situation.

Comments