USA2 SPOTLIGHT

Alzheimer's Talks: Neuroscientist Dr. Jeffrey Iliff and his team have been at the forefront of research on how the brain clears waste and what it may tell us about how Alzheimer’s develops. This month on Alzheimer’s Talks, he’ll join us to share his groundbreaking research on the possible links between sleep and Alzheimer’s. Join us on Tuesday, August 16, from 4 to 5 p.m. ETfor a fascinating conversation about this exciting research. Sign up here.

MUST READS

An August 9, 2016 U.S. News & World Report article reported on the future of aging including the evolution of precision medicine to address diseases like Alzheimer’s. According to the article, “Imagine a day in the not-too-distant future. You’re in your late 40s, and it’s time for a special doctor’s visit. The physician reviews your lifestyle, sleep habits and health history and orders some blood work to compare certain biomarkers with baseline measures taken when you were in your 20s. Then she gives you a personalized prescription for change that includes a diet that mimics the effects of fasting and a drug that helps your cells clear out malfunctioning proteins. The goal? To make you age more slowly and lengthen your “healthspan.” If it sounds like science fiction, you’re right – for now. But researchers in the field of geroscience, which explores the relationship between aging and diseases like cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer’s, see that day coming.”

An August 9, 2016 WUSF News article highlighted the work of the USF Health Byrd Alzheimer's Institute's new mobile Memory Research Suite. According to the article, “Now, thousands of other Alzheimer’s patients throughout the Bay area will be able to join Nagely in enrolling in a clinical trial, thanks to Byrd's mobile Memory Research Suite – a $400,000, first-of-its-kind vehicle that’s going directly to where patients live…He imagines the day where enrollees in clinical trials might pull up to the suite on golf carts, wearing their slippers. Most important, he said, is that Byrd gets more people enrolled in clinical trials, which might even shorten the time it takes to get these drugs approved by regulators and out to the general public.”

RESEARCH, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY 

An August 10, 2016 The Sun article reported that “Scientists believe the discovery of a gene signature in healthy brains could help identify the origins of the condition and create new treatments.” According to the article, “University of Cambridge academics said preventative treatments could be created for use by at-risk people, well before symptoms appear. The gene signature  – a group of genes characteristic to a medical condition – discovered in healthy brains echoes the pattern in which Alzheimer’s disease spreads in later life.”

An August 9, 2016 AlzForum.org article reported on new data that challenges “the view that tau accumulation and neurodegeneration are synonymous.” According to the article, “In fact, in many older people, the brain atrophies in the absence of neurofibrillary tangles. At the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference 2016, held July 22-28 in Toronto, Cliff Jack of the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, argued that AD staging criteria need to change to account for this new knowledge.”