Unpicking the Lock to the Blood-Brain Barrier with Dr Alexis Minchaca Acosta One Big Idea

The blood-brain barrier prevents 98% of medicines from reaching the brain. This prevents the effective treatment of neurological disorders, from cancer to Alzheimer's. If we knew how to create drugs that could pass through this barrier, then we'd be able to create targeted, effective treatments. But doing so requires a lot of trial and error, and there aren't a lot of effective, ethical, targeted treatments. Until now. Tune in to learn from Dr Alexis Minchaca Acosta, a Research Officer at the Children's Cancer Institute, on how her work in lab-made blood brain barriers could change the game for neurological disorders.

You can listen to Unpicking the Lock to the Blood-Brain Barrier with Dr Alexis Minchaca Acosta One Big Idea online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Unpicking the Lock to the Blood-Brain Barrier with Dr Alexis Minchaca Acosta One Big Idea is an episode from UNSW Centre for Ideas by UNSW Centre for Ideas.

This episode is 21:23 long.

This episode was published on Feb 12, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from UNSW Centre for Ideas when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.