 | John Noel Viaña Postdoctoral fellow - The Australian National University Bioethics - Medical ethics, Biology, Medicine |
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03.09.2018-30.10.2018
Invasive brain technologies for Alzheimer’s disease: common concerns and novel considerations
With the world’s increasing aging population comes the pressing need to better address conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), which presents a significant medical and economic burden to society (Takizawa et al., 2015). Recently, there has been an increase in the number of invasive brain technologies such as deep brain stimulation, cell implantation, and gene therapy that have been investigated as potential treatment for AD (Laxton and Lozano, 2013; Rafii et al., 2014; Wahlberg et al., 2012). This project will build on my PhD work that investigates medical and ethical concerns for each of these invasive brain technologies. During the Brocher residency, I will come up with an article synthesizing medical and ethical issues common to these three technologies and unique to each one. First, clinical trials and respective medical and scientific reports for each invasive brain technology will be examined to compare and contrast medical issues. Second, bioethical literature would be used to examine the effects of these technologies on a recipient’s concept of identity and self, considering associated changes in memory and on other psychosocial aspects that recipients experience post-surgery. By examining all three technologies together, analyzing and identifying similarities and differences, a framework could be established that would be helpful in establishing both overarching and technology-specific guidelines and recommendations on trials involving invasive brain interventions for people with AD. By the end of the residency, an academic article focusing on ethical concerns for these technologies would be submitted to an appropriate bioethics or medical journal. This article would hopefully help improve the design of subsequent trials, better promoting the welfare and improving protection from unnecessary harm of trial participants. References: Laxton AW, Lozano AM. Deep brain stimulation for the treatment of Alzheimer disease and dementias. World neurosurgery 2013;80(3-4):S28.e1-8. Rafii MS, Baumann TL, Bakay RA, Ostrove JM, Siffert J, Fleisher AS, Herzog CD, Barba D, Pay M, Salmon DP, Chu Y, Kordower JH, Bishop K, Keator D, Potkin S, Bartus RT. A phase1 study of stereotactic gene delivery of AAV2-NGF for Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimers Dement 2014;10(5):571-81. Takizawa C, Thompson PL, van Walsem A, Faure C, Maier WC. Epidemiological and economic burden of Alzheimer's disease: a systematic literature review of data across Europe and the United States of America. Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD 2015;43(4):1271-84. Wahlberg LU, Lind G, Almqvist PM, Kusk P, Tornoe J, Juliusson B, Soderman M, Sellden E, Seiger A, Eriksdotter-Jonhagen M, Linderoth B. Targeted delivery of nerve growth factor via encapsulated cell biodelivery in Alzheimer disease: a technology platform for restorative neurosurgery. Journal of neurosurgery 2012;117(2):340-7.
John Noel M. Viaña is a postdoctoctoral fellow in responsible innovation in precision health at the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, Australian National University and a visiting scientist at the Responsible Innovation Future Science Platform, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. He finished his PhD in Neuroethics (Society and Culture) at the University of Tasmania in Hobart, Australia. He holds an Erasmus Mundus Master's in Neuroscience degree at the VU University Amsterdam and the University of Bordeaux. He also has a bachelor's degree in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from the University of the Philippines Diliman. He was a short-term visiting student at the Neurophilosophy, Medical Ethics, and Neuroethics group at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin; the Department of Philosophy and Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering at the University of Washington; Neuroethics Canada at the University of British Columbia; and at the Brain and Mental Health Laboratory at Monash University. He has completed the Sherwin B. Nuland Summer Institute in Bioethics at Yale University in 2017.
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