Daiana Yedgey: Breaking the Wall of Dementia Diagnosis 

We are attempting to find a new early and minimally invasive way to diagnose dementia. Currently, the only way to diagnose dementia is by extensive brain imaging, assessment of symptoms and post-mortem staining of brain tissue. We are studying the human olfactory system where the first signs of dementia can be detected.

Daiana is a doctoral candidate at the University of Auckland, where she is researching early morphology changes and accumulation of abnormal proteins that link to neurodegenerative conditions. Daiana has completed multiple Summer Research Scholarship projects and an Honours project with Curtis Laboratory under the supervision of Dr Victoria Low and Professor Maurice Curtis, deepening her knowledge of olfactory system and dedicating her time to developing new ways of visualizing immunohistochemical staining as quantitative data within the human olfactory mucosa.