MUST READS

A November 19, 2015 BT.com article reported that “Poorer dementia patients in England are less likely to be prescribed the drugs they need, according to new research.” According to the article, “Poorer dementia patients in England are less likely to be prescribed the drugs they need, according to new research. Experts found stark differences in the number of patients given access to the key drugs cholinesterase inhibitors and memantine…In a new analysis of 77,045 patients, experts found that the least deprived patients in England were 27% more likely to be given anti-dementia drugs than the most deprived.”

A November 19, 2015 New Scientist article reported that researchers have traced the source of Alzheimer’s in a small Colombian town to 17th century Spanish conquistadors. According to the article, “The town of Yarumal in Colombia is famous for all the wrong reasons: it has the world’s largest population of people with Alzheimer’s disease. In Yarumal and the surrounding state of Antioquia, 5000 people carry a gene mutation which causes early-onset Alzheimer’s – half of them will be diagnosed by the age of 45, and the other half will succumb by the time they are 65…Now researchers have traced the ancestry of the mutation, concluding that it was probably introduced by a Spanish conquistador early in the 17th century.” 

A November 19, 2015 Forbes opinion piece by Allegran CEO Brent Saunders highlighted the need for collaboration in the fight against Alzheimer’s. According to Saunders, “At Allergan, we’re investing in therapies that treat diseases with unmet need, including CNS disorders. But every promising CNS therapy is at least a billion dollar bet, often much higher. Just think of how much it will cost to solve the Alzheimer’s challenge. We can’t do it alone.”

RESEARCH, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY 

A November 19, 2015 Fast Company article highlighted the potential of virtual reality to transform brain science. According to the article, “Now, Robinson is uncovering new ways to understand neuroscience with hardware. In 2014, the White House invited Robinson and her team to contribute to a panel on modernizing academic research with 3-D printing. After putting their first 3-D image files onto the National Institute of Health’s 3-D print exchange repository, a Canadian biology major named James Drake unexpectedly discovered his 3-D printer’s limitations. The printer couldn’t render one of the neuron’s delicate structures well, so he refined the virtual model by hand. Robinson’s team quickly went to work on an algorithm to automate thickening the 3-D models that other scientific labs could use, in collaboration with Drake.”

A November 18, 2015 EurekAlert.org statement announced that “Scientists at the Institute of Molecular Biology in Mainz have unraveled a complex regulatory mechanism that explains how a single gene can drive the formation of brain cells.” 

A November 18, 2015 NIH.gov news release announced “The National Institutes of Health has launched a new initiative to identify biomarkers and track the progression of Alzheimer’s in people with Down syndrome.”

A November 18, 2015 The Wall Street Journal article reported that “New research suggests that shifts in what a person finds funny can herald imminent changes in the brain—possibly presaging certain types of dementia.”