April 30, 2014

Today's Top Alzheimer's News

University of Maryland president calls for support of federally funded research, Mount Sinai Medical Center research into Alzheimer's prevention, Arizona's booming bioscience sector, and the brain of decision makers (read more)
 

Must reads

  • An April 29, 2014 Baltimore Sun opinion piece by Wallace D. Loh, President of the University of Maryland, underscored the importance of federal funding to bolstering "our quality of life, economic vitality and national security." According to Loh, "When the federal government eased up on research funding in last year's across-the-board "sequestration" cuts, many scientists were shaken. Young and mid-career scientists began to question whether they can succeed here and worried about a research brain drain...We continue to tap all possible funding sources and to benefit from enlightened leadership in Annapolis. Still, federal appropriations for education and research are irreplaceable as drivers of our nation's innovation. They are essential to the quality of life, economic vitality and security of our nation." 
Research and science 
  • An April 29, 2014 Miami Herald article reported on an Alzheimer's study being conducted by Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach
    focused on prevention. According to the article, "Duara said the study hopes to determine whether decreasing amyloid with antibody treatment can slow the memory loss associated with amyloid buildup. “The actual outcome we will be looking at is the slope of change,” Duara explains. “Is the slope steeper than those not treated or those without amyloid?’’ The A4 study, a large public-private partnership funded by the National Institute on Aging, drugmaker Eli Lilly and several philanthropic organizations, is enrolling participants — it hopes to recruit 1,000 seniors — at more than 60 sites throughout the United States, Canada and Australia this spring. There are three other Florida sites: the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, the University of South Florida’s Health Byrd Alzheimer Institute and the Premiere Research Institute in West Palm Beach."
  • An April 29, 2014 Forbes article reported on Arizona's booming bioscience sector which includes companies focused on developing treatments for diseases like Alzheimer's. According to the article, "TGen, founded by internationally recognized geneticist Dr. Jeffrey Trent, uses advanced genetic testing and research to improve diagnosis and treatment of complex diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, autism, and diabetes...They are not alone, Banner Alzheimer’s Institute, another Phoenix-based organization, is making strides in understanding how Alzheimer’s develops in the brain to improve patient treatments and disease prevention."
  • An April 27, 2014 Wall Street Journal article reported on new research that looks at the how the brains of decisions makers work revealing that "the best business minds make decisions very differently than we thought." Roderick Gilkey, a professor of management and associate professor of psychiatry at Emory University, conducted a study with colleagues to look at what happens when executives are making strategic decisions. They gave a group of midcareer executives a set of management scenarios and asked for their analysis and recommendations, then scanned their brains using functional magnetic resonance imaging while they completed the tasks.They expected to see a lot of activity in the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain known for its involvement in things like planning and logical reasoning. There was activity there, but different areas of the brain were dominant—those involved in social and emotional thinking. And the more adept strategic thinkers in the group displayed much higher levels of activity in these areas."
  • GE Healthcare Announces First U.S. Markets For New Alzheimer’s Diagnostic Tool for Detection of Beta Amyloid [GE Press Release] (4.29.14)