Dana Foundation Blog

Can We Undo the Course of Neurodegenerative Disease?

Columbia professor Rene Hen, Ph.D., called his former student Ai Yamamoto, Ph.D. , “one of the new young stars of Columbia University.” In describing her research into neurodegenerative disease, he cited “remarkable discoveries that have generated enormous hope.”

Following her mentor at Wednesday’s event, hosted by the University’s Mind Brain Behavior Institute and sponsored by the Dana Foundation, Dr. Yamamoto expressed gratitude for these generous words, but also trepidation. “You know those movie trailers that are really good, and then you go and see the movie and are disappointed? There’s a bit of pressure here…”

Yamamoto had little to worry about. The fascinating developments she recounted suggested the possibility not only of arresting the onslaught of diseases like Huntington’s disease (HD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), but of undoing the damage done.

Helen Mayberg Wins Psychiatry Award

Helen Mayberg, M.D., a professor of psychiatry, neurology, and radiology at Emory University School of Medicine, has been awarded the fifth annual Joan and Stanford Alexander Award in Psychiatry. Each year, Baylor College bestows the honor upon “a mental health professional who has made significant contributions in research, education and clinical or community service for people suffering from severe and persistent mental illness.” Past award winners include Dana Alliance members Nora Volkow, M.D., and Eric Kandel, M.D.

Mayberg is being recognized for her pioneering work using deep brain stimulation (DBS) for patients with treatment resistant depression. The Dana Foundation funded her research in this area, which was described in a 2012 Dana grantee interview.

--Ann L. Whitman

Combination of Tests May Improve Alzheimer’s Diagnosis

Using both imaging and biomarker tests for Alzheimer’s disease leads to more accurate diagnostic results, a Duke Medicine study suggests in this week’s Radiology.

In the press release, study author Jeffrey Petrella, M.D., explains, “This study marks the first time these diagnostic tests have been used together to help predict the progression of Alzheimer's. If you use all three biomarkers, you get a benefit above that of the pencil-and-paper neuropsychological tests used by doctors today… Each of these tests adds new information by looking at Alzheimer's from a different angle.”

DABI Member Involved in Parkinson's Study

Dana Alliance member Suzanne Corkin, Ph.D., of M.I.T., is the lead author of a newly published imaging study, which better shows the progression of Parkinson’s disease in living patients, and could lead to more tailored treatments.

According to yesterday’s New York Times:

[The investigators] worked out a way to combine four different sorts of M.R.I. to get clear pictures of damage to two brain structures in people living with Parkinson’s. In doing so, they have added support to one part of the recent hypothesis, which is that the disease first strikes an area involved in movement and later progresses to a higher part of the brain more involved in memory and attention.

Dr. Corkin was awarded a Dana Foundation grant in the mid-1990s to study the pathophysiology of cognitive decline in Parkinson's disease.

--Ann L. Whitman

Gene Helps to Influence Sleep Pattern and Time of Death

According to findings published in the November 2012 issue of Annals of Neurology, a new gene variant has been identified that predicts not only if you’re a morning or night person, but also what time of day you’re likely to die.

Harvard Medical School News reports,

“The internal ‘biological clock’ regulates many aspects of human biology and behavior, such as preferred sleep times, times of peak cognitive performance, and the timing of many physiological processes. It also influences the timing of acute medical events like stroke and heart attack,” says first author Andrew Lim, who conducted the work as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Lim’s research, which stemmed from an earlier study on sleeping problems and aging led by Dana Alliance member Clifford Saper, M.D., Ph.D., and funded by the Dana Foundation, compared wake-sleep behavior of healthy 65 year olds to their genotypes.