Can you detect Alzheimer’s with a spit sample? That’s the question driving Arianna Arbona’s exciting research at Universidad Pablo de Olavide in Sevilla, Spain. In this episode of Absolute Gene-ius, she shares how she’s isolating microvesicles from saliva and blood to identify early biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s—an effort that could one day lead to minimally invasive diagnostic tools.

Arianna describes the scientific and technical hurdles she’s overcoming, from low vesicle concentrations to validating the brain-specific origin of those vesicles. She also reflects on her previous lupus research, where digital PCR enabled detection of faint mRNA signatures that qPCR missed—making it an essential tool for rare target quantification. Her future plans include integrating immuno-PCR and multiplex assays for more sensitive and multi-marker detection in Alzheimer’s and beyond.

In the career corner, Arianna recounts her journey from the Canary Islands to Helsinki to Sevilla, balancing passion, mentorship, and a healthy sense of humor. She talks about working through uncertainty after her master’s degree, the mentors who kept her smiling, and how an early accidents taught her resilience. Her message to aspiring scientists: follow your curiosity and don’t be afraid to change direction.

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Biomarkers in motion ― detecting Alzheimer's through saliva