University of California researchers awarded AAN's 2010 Potamkin Prize

The American Academy of Neurology (AAN) is awarding its 2010 Potamkin Prize to two researchers for their work in Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), a common type of dementia. Bruce L. Miller, MD, and Lennart Mucke, MD, both of the University of California San Francisco will receive the Award during the AAN's 62nd Annual Meeting in Toronto, April 10 - 17, 2010. The AAN Annual Meeting is the world's largest gathering of neurologists with more than 2,000 presentations made on the latest advances in neurologic research.

The Potamkin Prize for Research in Pick's, Alzheimer's, and Related Diseases honors researchers for their work in helping to advance the understanding of Alzheimer's disease and related disorders. The $100,000 prize is to be used toward continuing dementia research and will be shared evenly between the two researchers.

Miller, a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology, is receiving the Potamkin Prize for his more than 25 years of pioneering research into FTLD, which is also known as Pick's disease and involves changes in behavior and problems with language. Miller has helped to improve diagnosis of FTLD while facilitating work into the genetics and molecular pathology of FTLD, which will aid in the development of treatments.

"The Potamkin Award is an inspiration for all scientists who study Alzheimer's disease and FTLD. For me, receiving this award is the highlight of my academic career," said Miller. "FTLD is an understudied but important disease that takes a great toll on both families and society. In turn, I am inspired to help find ways of treating and preventing this terrible disorder."

Mucke, a member of the American Academy of Neurology, is a co-recipient of the Potamkin Prize for his research discoveries of strategies that have effectively prevented and in some cases even reversed cognitive impairments in mouse models of Alzheimer's disease. "It is a great honor to receive this award, I hope that our research will help make the brain more resistant to Alzheimer's disease," said Mucke.

Mucke is best known for identifying molecular and cellular processes by which amyloid-beta proteins may cause the memory problems of Alzheimer's disease. Using genetically engineered mice, he has identified strategies to prevent the disease-causing proteins from disrupting neural network activity in the brain, setting the stage for the development of new treatments to combat the disease.

The Potamkin Prize is made possible by the philanthropic contributions of the Potamkin family of New York, Philadelphia and Miami. The goal of the prize is to help attract the best medical minds and most dedicated scientists in the world to the field of dementia research. The Potamkin family has been the Academy's single largest individual donor since 1988, providing more than $2 million to fund the Potamkin Prize.

The 62nd Annual Meeting of the AAN takes place in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

SOURCE American Academy of Neurology