Medicine & Health

A woman who never developed Alzheimer’s despite a strong genetic predisposition may hold the key to stopping the disease in its tracks. Researchers at the School of Medicine found clues that could help cut the link between the early, asymptomatic stage and the late stage, when cognitive decline sets in.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have found that a form of cholesterol known as cholesteryl esters builds up in the brains of mice with Alzheimer’s-like disease, and that clearing out the cholesteryl esters helps prevent brain damage and behavioral changes.

Anne Fagan, an internationally recognized expert on fluid biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease and a professor of neurology at the School of Medicine, has been named the 2023 recipient of the Khalid Iqbal Lifetime Achievement Award by the Alzheimer’s Association.

Song Hu at the McKelvey School of Engineering plans to develop deep-brain fiber-optic techniques to investigate the cause of memory loss in Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have identified a key step in the development of destructive tau tangles in the brain. The discovery could lead to new approaches to treating a group of neurodegenerative diseases known as tauopathies, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

The Food and Drug Administration has granted full approval to Leqembi for patients in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. The School of Medicine’s Barbara Joy Snider, MD, PhD, answers questions about the drug.

People with Down syndrome are at very high risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. A project led by Jason Hassenstab, at the School of Medicine, aims to develop tools to measure cognitive function in people with Down syndrome-associated Alzheimer’s disease.

Members of minoritized racial or ethnic groups and people who live in less affluent neighborhoods are less likely than others to receive specialized care for dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, a new study from the School of Medicine indicates.

Researchers at the School of Medicine and Lund University in Sweden have identified a form of tau that could serve as a marker to track Alzheimer’s progression. The marker also could speed drug development.

A study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine reveals that the bacteria that live in the gut change long before Alzheimer’s disease symptoms arise. The discovery could lead to diagnostics or treatments for Alzheimer’s disease that target the gut microbiome.