June 27, 2014

Today's Top Alzheimer's News

GE brings together a wide range of researchers in one global research center to focus on brain health, the University of Wisconsin launches fund to tackle Alzheimer's, and with World Cup fever hitting America, Scientific American looks at the link between soccer and brain damage (read more).  

 

Research, science, and technology

  • A June 27, 2014 Albany Business Review article profiled GE's Global Research Center in New York and its focus on brain health. According to A. Nadeem Ishaque, the center's global technology director of diagnostics and biomedical technologies, "Bringing electrical engineers, mathematicians, biologists, neurologists...all together with a focus, that's how innovation happens."
  • A June 26, 2014 MedCity News article reported that the University of Wisconsin launched a $1 million seed fund aimed at "nudging its Alzheimer’s disease research a little closer to the bedside." According to the article, "The fund will jumpstart about five companies with research from UW’s Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute, doling out anywhere from $50,000 to $400,000 apiece, said Lisa Johnson, WEDC vice president of entrepreneurship and innovation.The impetus for launching the fund with an Alzheimer’s focus is UW’s robust longitudinal data on the disease: The Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute has tracked the genetics and clinical presentation of the disease among more than 1,500 individuals since 2001. In that process, UW researchers have identified a number of Alzheimer’s biomarkers, and are using the knowledge amassed to develop therapies to prevent or delay onset of the disease, Johnson said."
Sports
  • A June 26, 2014 Scientific American article reported on the link between heading a soccer ball and brain damage. According to the article, "As evidence mounts that excessively heading a soccer ball can injure a player’s brain, professional players such as Brandi Chastain, a star of the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup, are using this year’s tournament to call attention to the health risks facing young players...Researchers who’ve followed soccer players have seen a close relationship between the amount of heading that a player does and brain abnormalities. There’ve also been studies where researchers compared soccer players to swimmers, and swimmers’ brains look perfectly normal while the soccer players’ brains had abnormalities in their white matter fiber tracts."
  • A June 26, 2014 Philly.com article reported that the NFL "agreed Wednesday to lift the $675 million cap on its settlement offer to former players suffering from concussion-related injuries - a move that league officials hoped would satisfy a federal judge who rejected an earlier plan over concerns that the money wouldn't last."
Notable losses  
  • A June 26, 2014 News Advance article reported that former Circuit City CEO died from a rare form of Alzheimer's disease. He was diagnosed in October 2010 with early-onset Alzheimer’s, a disease that also afflicted his grandfather, father and uncle. According to the article, "He took Circuit City Stores Inc. from a midsize consumer electronics chain in the 1980s and turned it into a national retailing powerhouse. He was the mastermind behind CarMax Inc., the used-car superstore concept that Circuit City developed that is now the nation’s largest retailer of used cars with $12 billion-plus in annual sales."