Neurodegenerative disorders and Dementia

Diagnosis, assessment, treatment, and prevention of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative and dementing disorders encompass a major area of collaboration among Department faculty in biomedical, genetic, and translational clinical research and training. These efforts are facilitated and enhanced considerably by the well-developed resources of the Shiley-Marcos Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC), renowned for its clinico-pathological and behavioral studies of dementia, and the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study, a U.S. and Canadian multi-center consortium of large-scale drug and assessment instrument clinical trials coordinated and administered by Department faculty and staff.

The ADRC is home to several landmark studies, including early demonstration of the correlation between memory enhancement in AD patients and cholinesterase inhibition, work that eventually led to FDA approval of the first drug for AD treatment, and discovery of the Lewy body variant of AD. Ongoing projects are focused on developing biomarkers for early detection of AD, nerve growth factor gene therapy for neural enhancement and regeneration, genetic risk factors for AD, presenilin function in the cellular and molecular biology of AD, electrophysiological correlates of memory impairment using the technique of event-related potentials, and complementary and alternative therapies for cognitive dysfunction and spasticity in patients with multiple sclerosis.

Patient Care
Aging/Senior Health
Shiley-Marcos ADRC
Multiple Sclerosis
SOCARE

Research
James B. Brewer, MD, PhD
Jody Corey-Bloom, MD, PhD
Steven Dyal Edland, PhD
Adam S. Fleisher, MD
Lawrence A. Hansen, MD
David E. Kang, PhD
Edward H. Koo, MD
Mark Kritchevsky, MD
Eliezer Masliah, MD
Subhojit Roy, MD, PhD
David P. Salmon, PhD
David D. Song, MD, PhD
Larry R. Squire, PhD
Mark H. Tuszynski, MD, PhD