Research Underway

Scientists are continually looking for new ways to research Alzheimer's Disease because a new direction of study may lead to a better understanding of the processes changing the patients' brains.  Treatments cannot really be targeted or identified until the base processes are identified.

One research opportunity that is being followed is using induced pluripotent stem cells from Alzheimer's patients to grow brain tissue in a laboratory setting.  The Alzheimer's patients provide skin cells which are used to create stem cells.  The stem cells are then coaxed to grow into brain tissue.  The brain tissue is genetically the same as the patient who contributed the skin cells.  This allows the scientists to work with tissue that is ethically and safely collected.  The patient doesn't undergo a dangerous brain biopsy.  The scientists get access to (potentially) impacted tissue without waiting for a post-mortem donation.

Another path of study is focusing on nanoparticles as a delivery mechanism for getting the drug of choice to the desired parts of the body.  The opportunity with nanoparticles is that they can cross the blood brain barrier due to their extremely small size, allowing medicine to get in the brain itself.

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