News from November 2020

November 30, 2020

The Early ADRC’s Search for an Alzheimer’s Gene

How Creative Teamwork, Collaboration, Leadership, and Luck Set the Stage for Today’s Approach to Biological Complexity. Part 1 of 3.

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Categories: Science Updates, Care & Treatment , News


November 29, 2020

Time Capsule: Revisiting a Defining Question about Alzheimer’s, 34 Years Later

In the inaugural issue of ADRC’s Dimensions newsletter in 1986, a reader asks: “I am confused about the difference between Alzheimer’s disease and senility. How can you tell them apart?” Looking back, with over three decades of clinical research under our belt, this question still gets to the heart of tricky issues about brain health and aging, but also reveals substantial progress.

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Categories: Science Updates, Care & Treatment , News


Prescriptions for Prevention of Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias

Exploring the most impactful take-home lessons of the Adult Changes in Thought study about dementia prevention and risk factors

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Categories: Science Updates, Care & Treatment , Brain Health, News, Brain Health Awareness


An Interview with the ADRC’s Founding Director

George Martin, MD, Emeritus Professor of UW Pathology, has led a long and productive career at the University of Washington, where he received his BS and MD degrees and has been a member of its faculty since 1957. He shares memories, fascinating insights about evolutionary biological theories of aging and genetics, and his hopes for the field of Alzheimer’s disease research.

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Categories: Science Updates, Team Spotlights, News


Untangling the Knot: The Far-Reaching Legacy of Non-Pharmacological Interventions and Caregiving Programs at the Early UW ADRC

Non-pharmacological approaches to dementia care, known collectively as the Seattle Protocols, stand as one of the historical legacies of the ADRC and parallel efforts that have had the farthest reach into the most intimate and difficult parts of people’s lives.

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Categories: Science Updates, Care & Treatment , Team Spotlights, News


Celebrating the Stories of ADRC Research Participants

Community members share about their lives, passions, and unique reasons for participating in ADRC research studies.

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Categories: Science Updates, Care & Treatment , Team Spotlights, News


Taking the Long Road: A Focus on American Indians and Alaska Natives

ADRC Efforts to Recognize Health Disparities and Better Represent American Indians and Alaska Natives in Alzheimer’s Disease Research and Education

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Categories: ADRC Indigenous Aging Brain Health Series, News


Towards an Ecology of the Aging Human Brain: The Shared Project of the ACT Study and UW ADRC

Today, the ACT study maintains extensive data resources in collaboration with the ADRC, including an unrivaled population of people over 90 years old and a collection of over 850 brains—one of the largest in the world. The ACT team attributes the size and the richness of the data to the comprehensiveness of care provided in Group Health, now Kaiser Permanente Washington, and years of detailed medical records that are now stored electronically. The ACT study has learned many lessons to date, which has contributed data to 98 funded grants, with results published in over 350 scientific articles on brain health and dementia risk.

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Categories: Science Updates, News


The Early ADRC’s Search for an Alzheimer’s Gene (Part 2)

The UW ADRC builds the Molecular Genetics Team and embarks on the Center's first research project to probe the genetic origins of Alzheimer's disease. Part 2 of 3.

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Categories: Science Updates, Care & Treatment , News


The Early ADRC’s Search for an Alzheimer’s Gene (Part 3)

As the decade-long story of the ADRC Molecular Genetics team reflects, the quest led to a better understanding of the heterogeneity in genes, pathological proteins, and clinical phenotypes inherent in age-related neurodegeneration. Past progress has fundamentally shifted how the Center defines the disease that it studies. Learn about the new tools for a new framework of biological heterogeneity at the present day ADRC, as well as recent creative partnerships.

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Categories: News