EVENTS AND RESOURCES

Deadline is tomorrow! STAR U from Columbia University is an eight-week summer training program for undergraduates with the aim of increasing diversity within the field of neuroscience of aging. In addition to individualized faculty mentorship, participants will engage in seminars and professional development activities. All applications are due by February 15, 2019. 

Deadline is tomorrow! The MAPP (Multicultural Alzheimer’s Prevention Program) Scholars Program is now accepting applications until February 15, 2019 for two openings at Massachusetts General Hospital, beginning June 3, 2019. The Scholarship Program addresses the urgent need to train the next generation of clinician-scientists, “exceptionally-qualified underrepresented and diverse doctoral students to a career in dementia-related clinical research. The program also seeks to enhance their proficiencies in assessing and diagnosing cognitive impairment in diverse individuals, as well as their professional networking opportunities in the field of Alzheimer’s disease prevention.”

RESEARCH AND SCIENCE

A February 13, 2019 Men’s Health article looked at the “microbial protection hypothesis,” the idea that Alzheimer’s disease is caused by common germs. As the brain ages, these germs infiltrate and instigate changes, causing AD. According to the article, “In one intriguing experiment, disrupting the gut microbiomes of fruit flies designed to develop Alzheimer’s aggravated their neuron loss. “If you want to stop Alzheimer’s before it occurs, it may involve treating microbial imbalances,” says [Robert] Moir [PhD of Harvard Medical School].”

According to a February 13, 2019 AL.com article, Alabama scientists from HudsonAlpha helped find “a never-before-identified mutation on PSEN1, a heavily studied gene known to cause Alzheimer’s.” The new finding, from an ongoing study of an extended family in Columbia with a history of inherited AD, could lead to pre-symptomatic drugs. “Studying these early-onset cases — including people who are presymptomatic — give us a chance to really dig deep into what specifically is changing in the body, brain and genome to cause the degeneration. It also allows us an opportunity to try to ward off the worst of the disease,” said lead researcher Dr. Ken Kosick.

ETHICS

A February 13, 2019 Desert News article looked at the ethics of love in the age of Alzheimer’s, and if it is OK for caregivers to seek companionship outside of a marriage if their spouse/loved one is still living. Critics call it adultery. According to the article, “With the rates of Alzheimer’s disease expected to nearly triple in the next 30 years, the issue is one that will increasingly confront people of faith and many spiritual leaders aren’t prepared to deal with it, said Rabbi Richard Address, founder and executive director of Jewish Sacred Aging… In some liberal traditions, a faith group could devise a ceremony that frees a person married to someone with dementia to pursue another relationship, or still-healthy partners could sign an agreement releasing the other to a new relationship if severe dementia occurs, Address has written.”

PROFILES IN COURAGE

BrightFocus Foundation launched “The Impact of Alzheimer’s” PSA series, a new national public service campaign, in both English and Spanish, designed to increase awareness and understanding of Alzheimer’s disease. The videos share first-person accounts of families impacted by AD.