UCSF and YouTube create novel channel to drive medical research

YouTube, the online video community that allows people to discover, watch and share originally created videos, has teamed up with scientists at The University of California, San Francisco to launch an Internet video channel dedicated to improving understanding of incurable neurodegenerative brain diseases.

The move is the latest step by one of the world's leading cadres of neuroscientists to engage the general public and physicians in the fight against these diseases, while helping caregivers cope with these devastating illnesses.

The channel is intended to increase awareness among patients, their families -- and physicians -- about the various forms of dementia, with the goal of promoting earlier diagnoses and getting more patients into research studies and clinical trials. The site is also intended to educate caregivers, and provide support through caregiver testimonials.

To support the effort, the UCSF team is also reaching out with two other forms of online communication. They've created an electronic badge, or "widget," containing links to the YouTube channel and the UCSF Memory and Aging Center web site that will allow people to spread the word about the initiative via email and websites, including disease-education associations. They have also created a Facebook group, "Defeat Dementia."

"The YouTube channel and these other forms of online communications will enable us to engage a broad audience in the fight against these illnesses," says Bruce Miller, MD, director of the UCSF Memory and Aging Center. "All of the dementias – including Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal dementia, Creutzfelt Jakob disease, Huntington's disease and Parkinson's disease with Lewy Bodies -- share common features. They all are illnesses in which normal proteins are misprocessed.

The channel is the latest outcome of the "Fight for Mike," an initiative by Silicon Valley leaders to save the life of one man – former Apple Computer Inc. and Netscape Computer Corp. marketing wunderkind Michael Homer – that has broadened to a mission to advance scientists' understanding of Homer's rare, fatal illness, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Understanding the disease, the UCSF scientists believe, will accelerate advances against the more common neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease.

The CJD web site, which will launch timed to the YouTube debut on June 16, includes UCSF physician-researchers and nurses discussing CJD, information for caregivers, testimonials by caregivers, advice for physicians ( infection control, interpreting tests, finding services ); and the science of proteins and prions ( Nobel laureate Prusiner, protein models, scientific talks, lab procedures, etc. ) geared to basic and translational scientists.

UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care.