New Study Finds Clues of Alzheimer’s Beginnings

Kapil Ramachandran, PhD, Assistant Professor of Neurological Sciences at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, led a new study that uncovered new insights into how Alzheimer’s disease begins. The study showed how tau filaments, protein clumps strongly associated with memory decline in Alzheimer’s disease, take shape and identified how tau first misfolds into filament tangles. For decades, researchers had been unable to determine how this misfolding process starts and produces these specific filament forms. “These prior studies could not capture how tau misfolds in the first place in Alzheimer’s disease, but understanding how tau aggregation begins is critical if we want to create therapies that prevent neurodegeneration before it starts,” says Dr. Ramachandran. [read more]

Source: CUIMC Newsroom