USA2 SPOTLIGHT

A March 20, 2015 Seacostonline.com article featured USA2 partner Greg O’Brien and his efforts to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s. According to the article, “O’Brien is a fighter. He also tries to keep his sense of humor. As he talked, if he lost his place he just “went on to the next PowerPoint slide,” in his mind. “Right now my brain is like an iPhone,” [O’Brien] said. “It has a short-term battery, it pocket dials and gets lost easily. But, it ain’t the end of the world. Until I can’t anymore, I’ll be a reporter.””

MUST READS

A March 23, 2015 Reuters article reported that Biogen will change its name, adopt a new logo, and double down on tough diseases. According to the article, “Chief Executive George Scangos says that going forward he will keep Biogen focused on developing drugs for some of the hardest-to-treat diseases. "Five years down the road, with some luck, we'll have an Alzheimer's drug that's getting approved,” Scangos told Reuters. "I hope we can transform the treatment of MS. By that time, we will have made substantial progress on ALS and other nerve degenerative diseases, spinal muscular atrophy in kids. All that stuff is on our plate," he said. "I am sure of two things," he added. "Not all of it is going to work, and some of it will.””

A March 21, 2015 PBS NewsHour broadcast segment highlighted Biogen’s promising Alzheimer’s research. According to the description, “In what could be a big step forward in the battle against Alzheimer's Disease, a new drug that during tests sharply slowed the cognitive decline of people with the debilitating disease. Dr. Samuel Gandy, a neurologist and Associate Director of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, joins Hari Sreenivasan.”

A March 23, 2015 The Toronto Star article reported that “a ‘tidal wave’ of Alzheimer's and other brain diseases will place a crippling strain on global health resources unless effective treatments are soon found.” According to the article, “Dementia is a looming catastrophe, public health experts say. And the world is not prepared. “The world has plans for dealing with a nuclear accident, cleaning up chemical spills, managing natural disasters,” Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, saidTuesday. “But we do not have a comprehensive and affordable plan for coping with the tidal wave of dementia that is coming our way”…But as the world waits, millions of lives are being slowly erased. Roughly half of all dementia cases in wealthy countries are missed, and in developing nations — where nearly 60 per cent of the world’s dementia cases occur — the picture is even more dire.”

DEMENTIA AND THE ARTS 

A March 21, 2015 Fresno Bee article featured a production of “The Power of Music,” a choral exploration of Alzheimer’s disease. According to the article, “The piece doesn’t downplay the ferocious impact of Alzheimer’s disease on patients, caregivers or, indeed, on a society at large that will face increasing numbers of diagnoses in years to come, particularly as the Baby Boom ages. Yet while Alzheimer’s is considered incurable, there have been advances in treatment and detection in recent years. Most important in terms of this oratorio, research suggests that music is a powerful tool in a caregiver’s arsenal.”

RESEARCH, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY 

A March 22, 2015 CBS News article reported on drug trails for the Alzheimer’s drug scyllo-inositol and the hope it holds for individuals with Down syndrome. According to the article, “Now in clinical trials, the drug called scyllo-inositol was initially developed as a potential treatment for Alzheimer's disease. It is derived from a naturally occurring sugar alcohol found in coconut palm plants. It's manufactured by Transition Therapeutic, and the company is also funding the testing. Dr. Brian Skotko, a medical geneticist and co-director of the Down Syndrome Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, is one of the physicians spearheading this research. Skotko, who grew up with a sister who has Down syndrome, told CBS News that while researchers still don't fully understand the drug's mechanism of action, he and others believe it may prove to be therapeutic for both patients with Down syndrome and Alzheimer's disease. The drug prevents accumulation of beta-amyloid plaques, which is one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. It also improves working memory. Skotko said research indicates that the formation of brain plaques linked to Alzheimer's disease are "encoded by genes located on chromosome 21.””

YOUTH PERSPECTIVE 

A March 20, 2015 The White House Blog post featured the 2015 exhibitors of the White House Science Fair, including 16 year old Kenneth Shinozuka and his Alzheimer’s focused project. According to the post, “More than half of the 5.2 million Americans with Alzheimer’s wander, which can lead to injury or death. Kenneth Shinozuka became acutely aware of this problem while caring for his grandfather, who was afflicted with the disease. Kenneth developed a sensor device that can detect when a wanderer stands up, apply pressure on his or her foot, and send an alert to the caregiver’s smartphone via Bluetooth. During six months of use, the device detected every instance when Kenneth’s grandfather got out of bed at night, without any false positives, ensuring his whereabouts were always known. Kenneth’s device won the Science in Action award at the 2014 Google Science Fair.”

INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT 

A March 21, 2015 Gulf Business article reported that Joaquin Duato, Johnson & Johnson’s worldwide head of pharmaceuticals, called Alzheimer’s a plague. According to Duato, “We have problems today like Alzheimer’s, which is a plague in the aging population. We are yet to find a cure for cancer and we still have a way to go in mental health…So I still feel like there are patients waiting and there is so much more to do.”