Have you resolved to take better care of yourself in the new year? Here’s a relatively painless way to do it: Catch a few more zzz’s every night. A third of American adults don’t get enough sleep, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Noted innovators Samuel Achilefu, PhD, David Holtzman, MD, and Eric Leuthardt, MD – faculty members at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis – have been named fellows of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). The 2017 class of NAI fellows was announced Tuesday.
Manganese – found in smoke from steel production and coal fires – has been linked to a range of neurological problems often seen with Parkinson’s disease: slowness, stiffness, tremors, anxiety, depression, cognitive changes, and difficulty walking and speaking.
Scientists drilling down to the molecular roots of Alzheimer’s disease have encountered a good news/bad news scenario. A major player is a gene called TREM2, mutations of which can substantially raise a person’s risk of the disease. The bad news is that in the early stages of the disease, high-risk TREM2 variants can hobble the immune system’s ability to […]
Timothy M. Miller, MD, PhD, a leading researcher in the neurodegenerative disorder amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), has been named the David Clayson Professor of Neurology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The professorship was established in 2001 through a bequest from David Clayson, PhD, to support innovative research into treatments for ALS, the […]
In the past few years, despite the best efforts of scientists and medical researchers, drug after drug designed to slow or stop the progression of Alzheimer’s disease has failed in clinical trials. Some had no effect on the progression of the disease, others made patients’ symptoms worse and yet others produced results so equivocal it […]
Michael Wong, MD, PhD, has been named the Allen P. and Josephine B. Green Professor of Pediatric Neurology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Wong sees patients with pediatric epilepsy at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and specializes in basic research into the origins of the illness. Pediatric epilepsy can be caused by genetic mutations and brain […]
Efforts to develop a treatment that stalls the memory-robbing devastation of Alzheimer’s disease have so far been unsuccessful, but scientists are making strides in another important area: the development of better tests to tell who has the condition. Their aim is to develop more accurate, cheaper and less invasive tests to detect the biological markers […]
A blood test can detect whether plaques of beta-amyloid are building up in a person’s brain – a sign that they may develop Alzheimer’s disease. People with Alzheimer’s disease tend to have sticky clumps of beta-amyloid in their brains, although the part these plaques play in the condition is unclear. Until now, the only way […]
Decades before people with Alzheimer’s disease develop memory loss and confusion, their brains become dotted with plaques made of a sticky protein – called amyloid beta – that is thought to contribute to the disease and its progression. Currently, the only way to detect amyloid beta in the brain is via PET scanning, which is […]