Complementary approaches to Alzheimer's research were recognized as four scientists received the prestigious MetLife Foundation Awards for Medical Research in Alzheimer's Disease in Washington, D.C. during a scientific briefing and luncheon. Todd E. Golde, M.D., Ph.D., professor of neuroscience at the University of Florida and director of its Center for Translational Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases, and Edward H. Koo, M.D., professor of neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, were honored alongside Eckhard Mandelkow, Ph.D., and Eva-Maria Mandelkow, M.D., Ph.D., director and principal investigator, respectively, of the Max-Planck-Institute for Structural Molecular Biology in Hamburg, Germany.
This year's recipients are examples of how differing schools of thought can come together to solve some of the world's most vexing problems. Drs. Koo and Golde have together identified the gamma-secretase modulators that decrease production of the highly toxic 42 amino acid "long" form of ABeta, which holds great promise for drug therapies to treat or prevent Alzheimer's. Drs. Mandelkow and Mandelkow, a husband and wife team, have been seeking therapies through analysis of the pathological folding of tau protein, its aggregation to Alzheimer neurofibrillary tangles, and the development of inhibitors of this aberrant aggregation. Both approaches, though divergent in many ways, are now believed to hold promise for each other in disease treatment research.
Since 1986, MetLife Foundation has granted major awards to scientists who have demonstrated significant contributions to the understanding of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The program's goal is to recognize the importance of basic research with an emphasis on providing scientists the opportunity to pursue ideas. Each winner received a $100,000 research grant and personal prize of $25,000 to further their work.