Most couples were lucky if they survived lockdown with their relationships in tact, children untraumatised and sourdough starter still alive. But not many could say they found time to build mini brains together.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
For husband and wife research dream-team Associate Professor Yazi Ke and Professor Lars Ittner from Macquarie University, lockdown provided a valuable opportunity to take stock and re-evaluate their endeavours in the field of dementia.
"We had unlimited time to bounce ideas off each other, from breakfast to when we were brushing our teeth at night," Prof Ke says.
"We are such a great team together. It could be a downside for some people but we never stop talking about work."
Previous research has always been conducted using animals because lab-grown human brain cells are unreliable.
But many of the results from animal-tested research fail to translate to humans because their cells work differently.
Being locked away at home together gave the two scientists time to absorb the latest advances in stem cell technology and come up with a new method of brain cell fabrication.
They take skin biopsies, culture those cells and reprogram them to become stem cells before driving them to become brain cells or 'neurons'.
"Now we can take a single sample and produce thousands or hundreds of thousands of cells that are all exactly the same ... then scoop out as many as we need for analysis," Ittner says.
"I always wanted this technology to work to enable new Alzheimer's research but it was Yazi who had the vision behind it."
The 'brains' are pink clusters of neurons about a centimetre in diameter.
"Seeing those neurons firing for the first time when we perfected the process, it was a combination of disbelief and a little bit of awe that we had managed it so quickly, because nothing is quick in dementia research," Ke says.
The cells are being used to investigate neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's and motor neuron disease and look at the effects of COVID-19 on the brain - which early studies indicate are "quite frightening".
"As soon as I saw the possibilities emerging here, my brain went wild," Ittner says.
"We're in this new, uncharted territory and all these ideas were popping into my head, ways to solve problems we've failed to address before.
"We hope this will enable new discoveries in dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases, like how they occur and how they can be treated ... I am stoked."
But despite the opportunity lockdown gave them to come up with this brilliant new scientific advance, the couple still would have preferred to avoid homeschooling at the same time.
"I would have preferred to do it all in the office and not being locked away in my house," Ittner says.
"And (to have left) the teaching of my kids to teachers, to the professionals, which we have found out we are not," he adds, laughing.
Australian Associated Press
