MUST READS 

A December 1, 2016 NPR.org article highlighted the Maja Daniels, “the inaugural winner of the Bob and Diane Fund, a $5,000 grant for visual storytelling about Alzheimer's disease and dementia.” According to the article, “Inside the walls of a geriatric hospital in France, time stands still. Light falls across two stockinged feet on a bed. The fading floral pattern on a swath of wallpaper is interrupted by an unused corkboard. And between these scenes of stillness, residents approach a pair of locked doors with modest curiosity, expectation and even anger. Swedish photographer Maja Daniels says those doors, which were locked to prevent the residents from wandering, were crucial early in the project.”

A December 1, 2016 USC News article profiled Alzheimer’s researcher Paul Aisen and “five things to know about the only disease among the top 10 in America that cannot be prevented, cured or slowed.” According to the article, “Paul Aisen, director of ATRI and a professor of neurology at the Keck School of Medicine, said his team is working to accelerate progress toward finding an effective therapy for Alzheimer’s. He shares his thoughts on a disease that affects more than 5 million Americans.”

A December 1, 2016 News-Medical article reported that “A study published Nov. 28 in the journal JAMA Neurology examined aquaporin-4, a type of membrane protein in the brain. Using brains donated for scientific research, researchers at OHSU discovered a correlation between the prevalence of aquaporin-4 among older people who did not suffer from Alzheimer's as compared to those who had the disease.”

A December 1, 2016 Science article reported that “Representative Andy Harris (R–MD), an anesthesiologist who has shown a keen interest in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) while in Congress, has put his hat in the ring for NIH director in the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, he told ScienceInsider today.” According to the article, “Harris says that as NIH director, “I'd build on what 21st Century Cures started but use the position of the director to push these ideas even further.” That includes also shifting more of the agency’s research funding to diseases that exact a high financial toll on society, such as Alzheimer’s. Although that idea also is controversial, Harris says future funding increases for NIH will depend on the “argument that more funding is a good investment because of the potential return to the federal budget,” he says.”