The Potamkin Prize

Since it's been a week of Alzheimer's research news, I should point to this Senior Journal article: "Three scientists are to be awarded the $100,000 Potamkin Prize [for] their work in helping advance the understanding of Alzheimer's disease and related disorders. ... Using a new technology called multiphoton microscopy we are able to [watch] plaques and tangles in the living brain and directly observe the effects of therapeutic interventions ... Our findings show that the clumps of amyloid-beta and tau proteins in plaques and tangles are not the main culprits of memory loss ... Her recent work has shown that a class of drugs known as kinase inhibitors that target an abnormal form of tau may be useful in treating tangles in Alzheimer's disease and other dementias." Until we're talking about underlying mechanisms and age-related biochemical damage at the root of it all, it's still early days - cleaning up the end results is not the way to go.

Link: http://www.seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Alzheimers/6-03-24-ThreeGetBigPrize.htm

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