Skip to main content

A4 Study Releases Negative Results

By Carousel Slider, Commentary, In the News

The topline results for the Anti-Amyloid treatment in Asymptomatic Alzheimer’s disease (A4) study were released today (https://a4study.org). Unfortunately, the drug being investigated, solanezumab, failed to demonstrate a benefit in slowing memory changes in a population of individuals age 65-to-85 who met criteria for preclinical Alzheimer’s disease. Preclinical Alzheimer’s is a relatively new construct. It includes people who are older and have normal memory performance, but in whom biological tests suggest that the risk for Alzheimer’s disease dementia is high. The A4 study was among the first ever preclinical AD trials, boldly blazing a trail that has now been followed by…

Read More

UCI MIND faculty member awarded grant to study patient reactions to Alzheimer’s disease diagnoses

By Carousel Slider, In the News

Dr. Joshua Grill and colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh have been awarded a 3.5 million dollar grant by the National Institute on Aging to advance the field’s understanding of real-world patient and family member reactions to biomarker-informed Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders (ADRD) diagnoses and to provide critical information for directing post-diagnostic resources to monitor and support those most in need. Read the full news story about this important research here   Related posts: Precision health perspectives Leslie Thompson discusses how UCI’s collaborative approach can help usher in the next great advancement in healthcare July 11, 2022 In February,…

Read More

UCI MIND researcher awarded grant to study a new vaccine for preventing Alzheimer’s

By Carousel Slider, In the News

UCI MIND faculty member and psychiatrist, David Sultzer, MD, has been awarded a $12 million dollar grant by the NIA to test a novel prevention treatment. He, along with two other Southern California researchers will test an experimental vaccine to prevent Alzheimer’s disease.  The Orange County Register covered the story. Read the article here. Related posts: ‘First person’ interview with Gianna Fote in the Journal of Cell Science First author Gianna Fote was recently interviewed by the Journal of Cell Science for a newly-published paper. She provided commentary on her team’s new findings for UCI MIND: “In our recently published…

Read More

No change in coverage yet for monoclonal antibody treatments for Alzheimer’s disease

By Carousel Slider, Commentary, In the News

On February 17, 2023, a bipartisan group of Senators sent the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Javier Baccera, and the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, a letter requesting that CMS reconsider their decision to require Coverage with Evidence Determination (CED) that was levied after the accelerated approval of aducanumab. The letter followed a similar request from the Alzheimer’s Association, made in December 2022. The CED decision significantly limited access to aducanumab and other monoclonal antibodies (should they be approved), requiring that coverage would be granted only if Medicare beneficiaries were enrolled in…

Read More

Mathew Blurton-Jones recognized as top innovator by UCI

By Carousel Slider, In the News

UCI MIND faculty member and Professor of Neurobiology and Behavior, Mathew Blurton-Jones Jones, PhD, has been awarded Early Career Innovator/Emerging Innovation of the Year by UCI Beall Applied Innovation. Read the full article here. Related posts: ‘First person’ interview with Gianna Fote in the Journal of Cell Science First author Gianna Fote was recently interviewed by the Journal of Cell Science for a newly-published paper. She provided commentary on her team’s new findings for UCI MIND: “In our recently published work we studied intracellular trafficking of Apolipoprotein E (APOE), a lipid-carrying protein. The APOE4 isoform of this protein… Hope Dies Last…

Read More

The family of Bruce Willis shared that he has FTD, what’s that?

By Carousel Slider, Commentary, In the News

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a form of dementia that typically affects individuals in their 50s and 60s. It is therefore, commonly referred to as young onset dementia. Clinically, FTD can present in two ways; some patients present with behavioral impairment and are referred to as behavioral variant FTD (bvFTD). The other main presentation involves language decline and is called primary progressive aphasia (PPA). Both conditions start insidiously and accurate diagnosis can be a challenge, especially at early stages of the disease. In bvFTD, patients can present with apathy, lack of empathy, increased appetite, preference for sweet tooth, new onset of…

Read More

Support from Joan and Don Beall will sustain two UCI MIND programs

By Carousel Slider, In the News

Irvine, Calif., Jan. 31, 2023 — Sustained support from philanthropists Joan and Don Beall to the the Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders will allow for the continuation of an educational outreach program in Orange County high schools and the creation of a new research award for an early career researcher. “We are grateful for the Beall’s leadership, involvement and increased support of $100,000 a year for our educational and research programs,” said Joshua Grill, director of UCI MIND. “Support like theirs is critical to the institute’s mission and demonstrates the trust and commitment of the local community in…

Read More

UCI MIND Faculty leads study to model sporadic Alzheimer’s disease in degus

By Carousel Slider, In the News

UCI School of Medicine highlighted innovative research performed in the lab of Xiangmin Xu, PhD, UCI MIND faculty member and professor and Chancellor’s Fellow of anatomy and neurobiology in the UCI School of Medicine.  Dr. Xu and colleagues have found that sporadic Alzheimer’s disease can be modeled in a non-murine rodent called the Chilean degu. “Our findings, taken together, show spontaneous AD-like correlative phenotypes in cognitive performance and neuropathology in aged, outbred degus. This supports that aged degus are a useful and practical model of natural sporadic AD.” Xiangmin Xu Read the article in the February edition of the UCI School…

Read More

FDA decides not to grant accelerated approval to donanemab

By Carousel Slider, Commentary, In the News

In a somewhat surprising move, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has declined to grant accelerated approval to Eli Lilly’s donanemab Read the full press release from Eli Lilly here Like aducanumab and lecanemab, which were previously granted accelerated approval by the FDA, donanemab is a monoclonal antibody treatment against the beta amyloid protein that accumulates in the brain of a person with Alzheimer’s disease. Eli Lilly published very promising results for donanemab in 2021, which included demonstration that donanemab could lower amyloid levels in the brain of people with mild cognitive impairment and mild dementia (the basis for…

Read More

Joshua Grill quoted in a National Geographic article about lecanemab

By Carousel Slider, In the News

The recent FDA approval of lecanemab has generated a lot of buzz in recent days and UCI MIND director, Joshua Grill, PhD has been asked to comment in various highly visible media outlets including the Washington Post and today, in National Geographic.  Related posts: Cell therapy: a new frontier in Parkinson’s disease After decades of research into the causes and treatment of Parkinson’s disease, UCI Health neurologist Dr. Claire Henchcliffe is hopeful that a new cell therapy can finally bring meaningful relief to patients with the progressive neurodegenerative movement disorder. A national expert on Parkinson’s disease, she is one of a small group of…

Read More