Three Alzheimer’s disease researchers at the School of Medicine have been named to the 2006 Scientific American 50, an honorary list of the year’s “prime movers” in a variety of scientific disciplines.
The magazine’s board of editors chose David Holtzman, M.D., the Andrew B. and Gretchen P. Jones Professor and head of the Department of Neurology; Randall Bateman, M.D., assistant professor of neurology; and John Cirrito, Ph.D., a postdoctoral research associate in neurology and psychiatry, based on their outstanding contributions to understanding how Alzheimer’s disease originates in and affects the brain.
Their work is funded by the National Institute on Aging, the Alzheimer’s Association, the Washington University Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC), the Hope Center for Neurological Disorders, the Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund and the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund.
The list appears in the December issue of the magazine.
Earlier this year, Bateman and Holtzman led a multidisciplinary team of scientists that developed the first safe and effective method for assessing production and clearance of amyloid beta peptide (Abeta) in the human central nervous system.
The new test also should be helpful in efforts to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease earlier and to test new treatments. It was developed in collaboration with Kevin E. Yarasheski, Ph.D., associate professor of medicine and assistant director of the Washington University Biomedical Mass Spectrometry Resource, and with the support of the ADRC, which is directed by John C. Morris, M.D., the Friedman Distinguished Professor of Neurology.
Factors affecting Abeta accumulation are also a key issue for Cirrito. Cirrito modified an existing technique called microdialysis to enable repeated sampling and measurement of Abeta levels in mouse brains genetically altered to model human Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers found that turning up brain cell firing rates drove up levels of Abeta in the spaces between brain cells.
The study’s results may help explain why specific brain regions are vulnerable to Alzheimer’s.