Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives
member and Harvard professor and neuroscientist Rudolph Tanzi, Ph.D., also unofficially referred to as a “rock star of science,” is a skilled jazz
organist, impassioned advocate for neuroscience research and public outreach,
and a distinguished neuroscientist who co-discovered the gene for Alzheimer’s
disease.
Tanzi, who worked with Aerosmith’s Joe
Perry on a music track and a public service campaign highlighting the need for
more funding for medical research, recently collaborated
with Deepak Chopra,
M.D., on a series of articles for the San
Francisco Chronicle pondering the concept of a “conscious universe” as opposed
to one that functions upon chance and randomness. Andrew Doerfler wrote in a Boston Globe article about Tanzi’s
projects: “As strange as it seems for a renowned genetic researcher to end up
playing on a new album with one of rock’s all time bands, Tanzi expects
colleagues to react to his collaborations with Chopra with just as much
surprise.” Indeed, Tanzi is eager to
consider unconventional and holistic views of science.
Millions of people were affected by Hurricane Sandy, as the
storm caused widespread power outages, flooding, and in some cases even death. Sandy
had some devastating effects on the science community as well. Perhaps the
laboratory most affected was at New York University, where thousands of mice
used to study heart disease, cancer, and mental disorders were
lost due to the storm. “Animal resource staff was on site continuously to
mitigate the damage from the storm, but due to the speed and force of the surge,
animal rescue attempts were unsuccessful,” read
a statement released by the NYU Langone Medical Center last Wednesday. “We
are deeply saddened by the loss of these animals’ lives and the impact this has
on the many years of important work conducted by our researchers.”
On September 12 in D.C., congressional staffers and federal scientists heard from neurology experts about the occurrence of dementia, and steps being taking to diagnose and treat the different types. The Capitol Hill briefings are part of a series organized by AAAS and funded by the Dana Foundation.
On hand at the event were Dana Alliance members Murray Grossman, M.D., and Patrick Griffith, M.D., F.A.A.N. Grossman discussed early-onset dementia, pointing out that it is not uncommon. AAAS reports:
A six-year-old boy witnesses a loved one's a seizure, and years later goes on to discover unique neurochemical changes in the brain at the onset of experimental seizures and stroke. After turning his
back on music—he had been walking to piano lessons with his aunt the day of her seizure—he rediscovers his passion for it in New Orleans and writes a novel that connects music and neuroscience.
Today is Alzheimer’s Action Day. In recognition of that, I
interviewed Dana Alliance member Reisa Sperling,
M.D., the director at the Center for Alzheimer Research and Treatment at the Brigham
and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
How can someone tell
the difference between normal cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease?
It’s part of normal aging to have momentary lapses where you
can’t remember where you put your keys or the name of the actress you saw in a
movie last week. What I think is not normal is forgetting
you went to the movies at
all or forgetting you drove your car that day. It is somewhat a matter of
degree. It’s whether you remember that you forget. If you are actively
searching for your keys, that is part of normal aging. But some people forget
they even lost their keys. It’s hard to have an absolute answer because the
earlier you go back in Alzheimer’s disease the closer it gets to what is
probably the overlap with normal aging. I try to determine the difference.
