Neural Synaptic Circuit Changes During Alzheimer’s Disease Progression

Functional disruptions in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have been well characterized. However, how AD affects the synaptic connectivity in neuronal networks leading to these functional disruptions has remained poorly understood. One major research direction in the principal investigator’s laboratory has been to investigate the synaptic mechanisms, in particular excitatory and inhibitory ...

February 17, 2022

Huizhong W. Tao

Alzheimer’s in a Dish

September 24, 2017

Counteracting Pathogenic Events in Alzheimer’s Disease with Peripheral or Central Apolipoprotein E

2021 Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia, with apolipoprotein E (APOE) being the strongest genetic risk factor. Our project, part of the APOE Consortium, is to define how the APOE2 gene and two other APOE genetic variants—Christchurch (APOE-Ch) and Jacksonville (APOE-Jac)—protect against AD-like outcomes such as amyloid beta ...

April 13, 2020

Takahisa Kanekiyo

“Death in Slow Motion”: Greg O’Brien on Alzheimer’s

Greg O’Brien is a reporter from Brewster, Mass. He is the former editor and publisher of the Cape Codder and an award-winning writer. O’Brien was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease in 2010. The following is an excerpt from a speech he gave on March 13, 2014. Alzheimer’s disease is deeply personal for ...

March 31, 2014

The Gang Family

Alzheimer’s disease has unfortunately touched our family as it has for far too many families. Michael’s father, Stanley, was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and it is slowly taking away many of Stanley’s fond memories of his grandchildren, daughter-in-law and sons who all adore him. It is so sad to see a ...

November 18, 2015

APOE Consortium: Toward Developing High-Density Lipoprotein Enriched in Apolipoprotein E as a Potential Biomarker and Therapeutic Targeting Vascular Contributions to Alzheimer’s Disease

2021 A major genetic risk factor for sporadic Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a gene called apolipoprotein E (APOE), which codes for the APOE protein. The version of the APOE gene that confers higher AD risk makes the protein APOE4, while the normal version makes APOE3, and the protective version makes APOE2. Exactly how the different versions of ...

July 25, 2017

Cheryl Wellington

Evidence of the Link between Alzheimer’s and Herpes Continues to Grow

In two independent studies, several prominent scientists funded by Cure Alzheimer’s Fund including Rudy Tanzi, Rob Moir, and Sam Gandy, along with their colleagues, have demonstrated that viruses, and herpes in particular, are involved in Alzheimer’s disease. The herpes virus can influence the activity of many human genes—including several that ...

October 25, 2018

New Insights Into the Blood-Brain Barrier

Three recent discoveries by University of Southern California neuroscientist Berislav Zlokovic, M.D., Ph.D., have clarified one of the least-understood elements of Alzheimer’s disease: how the blood-brain barrier becomes compromised and contributes to the disease process.  In healthy individuals, the blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a fine mesh filter that transports only select ...

July 22, 2015

Genes to Therapies (G2T) Centralized Research Core Oversight

The Cure Alzheimer’s Fund Genes to Therapies™ (G2T) Centralized Research Core group works in concert with the Alzheimer’s Genome Project™(AGP) and in partnership with Taconic Biosciences to create new Alzheimer’s disease (AD) mouse models. While the models are being validated, they are available to Cure Alzheimer’s Fund grantees. Ultimately, all ...

April 21, 2015

Wilma Wasco

The AlzGene Database

Cure Alzheimer’s is funding the management and continued development of a revolutionary web based database. AlzGene is a resource for Alzheimer’s researchers, providing data and meta-analyses from hundreds of genetic association studies in an easy-to-use, searchable database. A team of researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital led by Dr. Lars Bertram, ...

August 20, 2009