Two weeks after the FDA gave the nod to aducanumab, the aftershocks continue to reverberate. Critics are lambasting the agency, three members of its advisory committee resigned, and the drug’s cost has ignited calls for pricing reform. Meanwhile, Alzheime
If you find it hard to keep up with Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social networks, spare a thought for the brain. With 100 to 500 trillion synaptic connections, the human brain dwarfs all of them. How do those connections work to formulate thought, recall
In the absence of truly effective treatments, and in the presence of a rapidly growing, dementia-prone population of elders, it's perhaps no surprise that people are increasingly open to products claiming even the slightest hint of promise, however u
A $40 million multicenter biomarker study for Parkinson disease progression is off and running, with enrollment underway at 10 of 18 sites in the U.S. and Europe. In design and operation, the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) follow
Alzforum readers who follow the science of preclinical Alzheimer's and prevention may have heard about three independent but complementary programs that together are laying the groundwork for secondary prevention trials across the spectrum of rare to
When the first human genome sequence was finished in 2003, it quickly became clear that its seemingly unending stream of letters was not enough to comprehend what makes people tick. All the moving parts that bring the DNA code to life needed to be underst
With the nation at war for eight continuous years, and awareness of the dangers of sports concussions on the rise, a new priority—and opportunity—are taking shape for neurodegenerative disease researchers. In a time of austere budgets, the Department of D
Researchers have tied sleep to clearance of waste products such as excess Aβ. New research suggests this clearance may be driven by a change in the extracellular ion composition, which swells the interstitial fluid. Other work finds an essential role for
Online training for use of Amyvid, the first FDA-approved Aβ imaging ligand, is now up and running,even as a task force convened by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and the Alzheimer's Association scrambles to formulate some expert guidelines on how a
As populations age worldwide and the number of people with dementia is set to soar over the next few decades, a crisis in eldercare looms. At the same time, the use of personal technology—smartphones, tablets, wearable monitors—is exploding. Can technolog
Are you curious about trying iPS cell lines to model the disease you care about? Intrigued but nebulous on where the field is at? Ready to grow an iPS line but not sure where to turn? Read Madolyn Rogers's four-part series to learn all about who does
Last year's ice bucket challenge for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis netted $220 million in donations for ALS charities, and the 2015 challenge is off to a strong start with $100,000 from Major League Baseball. Alzforum looks at how all that money is b
Have neuroscientists entered the era of the programmable brain? Thanks to optogenetics and pharmacogenetics, which let scientists switch neuronal activity on or off with light or designer drugs, scientists can now control specific subtypes of neurons in r
In this series, ARF takes stock of deep-brain stimulation after more than a decade of life-altering procedures, In deep brain stimulation, surgeons implant wires into the brain and hook them up to a pacemaker-like stimulator implanted in the chest, which