November 12, 2015

Today's Top Alzheimer's News

USA2 Spotlight 

Don't Miss Next Week's Alzheimer's Talks: Join us on November 18 at 2 p.m. EST for Alzheimer's Talks with Dr. Larry Goldstein, Director of the Sanford Stem Cell Center and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Goldstein will join us to discuss the stem cell-based models of disease and their work in using stem cells to fight against Alzheimer's disease. Sign up here.

 

A November 10, 2015 NPR Marketplace article reported on the growing need for Spanish-speaking caretakers as Latinos age and highlighted the work of LatinosAgainstAlzheimer's coalition member The Latino Alzheimer's Alliance. According to the article, “Latinos are the fastest growing group of people 65 and older in the U.S. today. And the number of elderly Latinos with dementia is growing, too. Already, there aren’t enough bilingual, bicultural services to go around. That means increasingly, Latinos are going to have to leave work and other responsibilities to care for ailing family members…the Latino Alzheimer’s Alliance are starting bilingual support groups and other programs across the country. That also saves the healthcare system money, because it’s cheaper to care for people in their own homes.”


Must Reads

A December 2015 Smithsonian Magazine article profiled the work of Alzheimer’s researchers Rudolph Tanzi and Doo Yeon Kim. According to the profile, “The pair’s contrapuntalism has proved a runaway hit. Tanzi and Kim have devised a revolutionary tool for tackling Alzheimer’s disease, the world’s leading cause of senile dementia and a medical crisis that looms ever larger as the teeming throngs of baby boomers lurch into old age. Reported late last year to international acclaim in the prestigious journal Nature, the new technique, an innovative type of cell culture, is considered the most persuasive and useful laboratory model yet invented of the neurodegenerative disease.”


A November 12, 2015 Boston Globe article reported on Biogen’s “strategy to accelerate work on therapies aimed at Alzheimer’s disease and other conditions that have long bedeviled biomedical researchers.” According to the article, “he shakeup, which refocused the company on diseases affecting the brain, set the stage for five years of rapid growth that made it the world leader in MS drugs and the state’s biggest company by market value. That expansion hit some unanticipated speed bumps this summer. Biogen executives watched $20 billion in market value evaporate on July 24 after they posted a disappointing quarterly financial report and slower sales growth for a key MS therapy. Investors were also rattled by mixed clinical results for a highly anticipated experimental Alzheimer’s treatment.”


A November 11, 2015 The Atlantic article reported on the housing hardships that seniors face when nursing homes close. According to the article, “When assisted-living facilities shut down, their elderly residents often have to scramble for a new home—and health and financial concerns can make it hard to find a fit.”