Alzheimer's & Dementia News and Research

Latest Alzheimer's & Dementia News and Research

Viewpoints: Finding savings in Medicare; The Avastin saga; Changes in health care business

There is no way to wrestle down the deficit without reining in Medicare costs. Ensuring that the program provides quality health care coverage to millions of older and disabled Americans is essential. These goals are not incompatible, but they require a judicious approach to policy making that is depressingly absent in Washington.

21 Nov 2011

Adeona to develop and commercialize DNA-based therapeutic for PAH using Intrexon technology

Adeona Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and the Human Therapeutics Division of Intrexon Corporation, announced today the formation of a global exclusive channel collaboration through which Adeona intends to develop and commercialize a DNA-based therapeutic using Intrexon's UltraVector platform and RheoSwitch Therapeutic System for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).

21 Nov 2011

American high school students earn top honors for liver disease and brain injury research

The shortlist of contenders for the highest science honor awarded to American high school students narrowed tonight as the winners of the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology Region 3 Finals were announced.

21 Nov 2011

Scientists unravel how brain combines different sensory cues to make sense of our world

The human brain is bombarded with a cacophony of information from the eyes, ears, nose, mouth and skin. Now a team of scientists at the University of Rochester, Washington University in St. Louis, and Baylor College of Medicine has unraveled how the brain manages to process those complex, rapidly changing, and often conflicting sensory signals to make sense of our world.

21 Nov 2011

Scientists show that the sense of smell can be improved

In a new study scientists at NYU Langone Medical Center have shown that the sense of smell can be improved. The new findings, published online November 20, 2011, in Nature Neuroscience, suggest possible ways to reverse the loss of smell due to aging or disease.

20 Nov 2011

A better handle for researchers to tackle Alzheimer's disease

Since the approval of four cholinesterase inhibitors in the 1990s and memantine in 2003, there have been no new treatments for Alzheimer's disease, a condition that currently affects more than 35 million people worldwide.

19 Nov 2011

Researchers describe how brain handles spatial resolution

Everybody knows how to zoom in and out on an online map, to get the level of resolution you need to get you where you want to go. Now researchers have discovered a key mechanism that can act like a zoom button in the brain, by controlling the resolution of the brain's internal maps.

18 Nov 2011

Important clues to prevention and management of delirium are being ignored

Important clues to the prevention and management of delirium, a condition affecting an estimated 7 million hospitalized Americans, are being ignored, according to a study from the Regenstrief Institute and the Indiana University School of Medicine.

18 Nov 2011

UK to offer master's degree in music therapy

The University of Kentucky will be the first higher education institution in the Commonwealth of Kentucky to offer a graduate degree in music therapy. The program, housed at the UK School of Music, was officially approved by the state's Council on Postsecondary Education earlier in November and will start accepting graduate students in the spring of 2012.

18 Nov 2011

New protein in the fruit fly eye may shed light on neurodegenerative diseases

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and collaborators have discovered a powerful new protein in the eye of the fruit fly that may shed light on blinding diseases and other sensory problems in humans.

18 Nov 2011

New framework to improve care for patients with delirium

A new national plan of action provides a roadmap for improving the care of patients with delirium, a poorly understood and often unrecognized brain condition that affects approximately seven million hospitalized Americans each year.

18 Nov 2011

Avraham raises $3M to advance ladostigil Phase II Alzheimer's trial

The drug, ladostigil, is a molecule that combines components from the existing drugs Azilect and Exelon. Teva's Azilect, for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, was developed by Prof. Emeritus Moussa Youdim of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. Azilect is the only anti-Parkinson's drug that has proven to have a disease-modifying effect. Novartis's Exelon was developed by Prof. Marta Weinstock-Rosin of Hebrew University to treat Alzheimer's disease.

17 Nov 2011

People with prior stroke or diabetes benefit from thrombolytic therapy

People with a history of stroke or diabetes who were given clot-busting drugs to break up blood clots after stroke fared better than those who did not receive the drugs, according to a study published in the November 16, 2011, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

17 Nov 2011

Excessive vitamin D levels can lead to onset of AF

While previous studies have linked vitamin D deficiency to an increased risk for cardiovascular disease, new research at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute shows that too much vitamin D can lead to the onset of a dangerous heart condition known as atrial fibrillation.

16 Nov 2011

AHA honors Gladstone senior investigator with Distinguished Scientist Award

The American Heart Association will today present Gladstone Institutes Senior Investigator and President Emeritus Robert Mahley, MD, PhD, with the 2011 AHA Distinguished Scientist Award, bestowing yet another honor on one of Gladstone's founding cardiovascular scientists.

16 Nov 2011

TU Darmstadt chemists develop new method to diagnose Alzheimer's

Chemists at the Technische Universität Darmstadt have developed a new method for diagnosing Alzheimer's disease. The method involves making protein deposits on mucous nasal membranes that are detectable years before the disease erupts visible.

16 Nov 2011

Nearly one-fifth of Americans have severe hearing loss

Nearly a fifth of all Americans 12 years or older have hearing loss so severe that it may make communication difficult, according to a new study led by Johns Hopkins researchers and published in the Nov. 14 Archives of Internal Medicine.

15 Nov 2011

Yissum Research and other investors complete additional investment round of $3 million in Avraham Pharmaceuticals

Yissum Research Development Company Ltd., the technology transfer arm of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, today announced that it has participated in a U.S. $3 million financing round of Avraham Pharmaceuticals Ltd. together with Pontifax, Clal Biotechnology Industries (CBI), Technion Research and Development Foundation Ltd. (TRDF), Professor Marta Weinstock-Rosin and others.

14 Nov 2011

Top-line results from Probiodrug's PQ912 Phase 1 SAD, MAD study for Alzheimer's disease

Probiodrug AG, a biotech company developing products for the treatment of neurodegenerative and inflammatory diseases, with a particular focus on Alzheimer's disease (AD), today announced top-line results of its Phase 1 single (SAD) and multiple ascending dose (MAD) study of PQ912 in healthy volunteers.

14 Nov 2011

New insight into how the human brain learns and remembers

New research released today provides insight into one of neuroscience's most intriguing mysteries: how the human brain learns and remembers. These studies - involving topics as diverse as musical memory, "change blindness," and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) - illustrate the profound influence that specific changes in either the brain's structure, function, or both, can have on human behavior.

14 Nov 2011