Episode #17 Dr Jocelyn LeBlanc
Today’s podcast conversation is with Dr Jocelyn LeBlanc. Jocelyn earned her PhD in neuroscience from Harvard Medical School where she worked in the laboratory of Dr. Michela Fagiolini. Jocelyn then made the unusual shift from working from working with Rett mice to working with children with Rett Syndrome at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Now resident in the UK with her own family, Jocelyn works for the umbrella medical research organisation, the Association of Medical Research Charities where she oversees the collection, analysis and publication of sector data to demonstrate the scale of charity investment in medical research and highlight the impact of this research on people and society.
In this conversation, Jocelyn shares the impact of her first meeting with a young patient with Rett Syndrome and provides some insight into what she learned from studies conducted with these children and families. We also discuss the work of AMRC and why membership is so important to small medical research charities like Reverse Rett, particularly now during the on-going pandemic.
I am grateful to Jocelyn for taking the time to speak to me and especially for indulging my unscientific contemplation of what goes on inside the minds of people with Rett Syndrome. As always, we’d love to know what you think of the podcast. Please don’t forget to like and subscribe.
Links
Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC)
Reversal experiment before video
Reversal experiment after video
Chatter: The Voice in Our Head and How to Harness It by Ethan Kross
Research charity crisis affects the whole development ecosystem