President Boon Ja Yoo Lee (center) awarded with Ellis Island Medal of Honor stands with decorated officers, friends and family who attended the event, including Dr. Hye-Won Shin (center lower left) and Eugene (second from left) and Carol (third from right) Choi. UCI MIND proudly celebrates Boon Ja Yoo Lee, who is a 2025 recipient of the prestigious Ellis Island Medal of Honor, for her outstanding contributions to Alzheimer's and dementia caregiving research, medical education, and public advocacy. As the first Korean American member of the UCI MIND Leadership Council, Boon Ja has played a transformative role in elevating the…
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Last week was an especially busy one for members of our team at national Alzheimer’s disease research meetings in San Francisco. First, several of our investigators attended the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Centers Spring Directors’ Meeting, a semi-annual gathering of the 35 NIH funded Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers (ADRCs). This meeting serves as an opportunity for ADRC teams to learn about programmatic updates, share research findings, and forge new collaborations. Dr. Shi accepts a 2025 NACC REC Rising Star Award This year, Xiaoyu Shi, PhD, a UCI ADRC REC Scholar and Associate Professor of Developmental and Cell Biology, was awarded…
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Dr. Leslie Thompson was interviewed for KTLA News about a local woman who was recently diagnosed with Huntington's disease. To watch her interview, click this link.
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As one of the most diverse racial groups in the United States, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) populations are projected to grow significantly in the next 30 years —especially among older adults—yet they remain drastically underrepresented in aging, dementia, and caregiving research. This creates a gap in our understanding of how cultural, linguistic, and social factors affect health outcomes later in life. To address this disparity, the Collaborative Approach for AANHPI Research and Education (CARE) Registry was developed at UCSF with leadership from Dr. Joshua Grill and others at UCI MIND with the goal to easily connect…
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An article in Martha Stewart Magazine about the 10 hobbies that can "improve" brain health featured a 2020 article by Dr. Craig Stark on a 4-week video intervention in older adults. Read the article here
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The Daily Mail featured the Blurton-Jones Lab for their recent work on microglia replacement. Read the article in the Daily Mail here.
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Co-author Dr. Ghazaleh Eskandari-Sedighi and postdoctoral scholar in the Blurton-Jones Lab The Blurton-Jones lab, in collaboration with several other prominent research groups in the US and Japan, recently published an article in the journal Nature describing the role of TIM-3, a newly characterized molecule implicated in sporadic AD. The lead researchers on the project, Drs. Oleg Butovsy and Vijay Kuchroo, from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, discovered the signaling pathway through which TIM-3, an immune-checkpoint molecule (encoded by HAVCR2 gene) regulates microglia function. The Blurton-Jones Lab played a critical role in this project by providing the human microglia modeling platform needed to complement…
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University of California, Irvine scientists have unveiled a groundbreaking new way to deliver disease-fighting proteins throughout the brain, potentially revolutionizing the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological disorders. By engineering human immune cells called microglia the researchers have created living cellular “couriers” capable of responding to brain pathology and releasing therapeutic agents exactly where needed. The National Institutes of Health-supported study, published recently in Cell Stem Cell, demonstrates for the first time that induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC)- -derived microglia can be genetically programmed to detect disease-specific brain changes – like amyloid plaques in Alzheimer’s disease – and to…
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Dean LaFerla gives a presentation on MODEL-AD The Alzheimer’s Disease Parkinson’s Disease (ADPD) 2025 International Conference, held this year in Vienna, Austria, is an annual gathering for scientific experts and industry leaders in neurodegenerative diseases. This conference serves as a platform for sharing the latest scientific breakthroughs, clinical trial results, and innovative treatment strategies. With attendees from over 70 countries giving more than 1,200 poster presentations and 700 oral presentations, ADPD uniquely combines discussions on Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and related disorders, fostering a deeper understanding of their respective mechanisms and potential therapies. The conference also highlights the importance of global collaboration,…
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Assistant professor in Physiology & Biophysics and UCI MIND faculty co-authored a paper in the journal Nature that reveals a mechanism for memory preservation. To read a summary of the article, visit Brain and Behavior Research Foundation
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Today is World Down Syndrome Day! Did you know that individuals with Down syndrome have a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease? UCI MIND and The Center for Aging Research in Down Syndrome (CFAR-DS) are dedicated to understanding and addressing this important issue. The UCI MIND Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Down Syndrome Core, led by Drs. Ira Lott and Elizabeth Head, is a pioneering initiative dedicated to advancing our understanding of Alzheimer’s in individuals with Down syndrome. CFAR-DS is a leading research institute with a mission to improve the lives of individuals with Down syndrome and their families. Dr. Elizabeth Head…
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Casey Vanderlip Casey Vanderlip, MD/PhD student in the laboratory of Dr. Craig Stark, has won the 2025 UCI Grad Slam Competition. The competition involves graduate students delivering 3-minute presentations on their research. Casey received $6,500 for his victory in the competition, which is intended to highlight the role of graduate trainees and enhance their public presentation skills.
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On March 13, UCI MIND and the UCI Claire Trevor School of the Arts Department of Music collaborated to present "Finding Light: Alzheimer's Stories" by Robert S. Cohen. The evening featured a pre-concert panel that included the composer, the conductor of the UC Irvine Chamber Singers & Concert Choir, the Director of UCI MIND, and two research participants who represented the lived experience of individuals living with cognitive impairment. The panel was followed by an incredible two-act performance by the UCI Chamber Singers & Concert Choir. First, the Chamber Singers performed a collection of related and inspiring pieces. After an…
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Message from the Director For many, the new year is a time for fresh starts and resolutions. As we enter 2025, we at UCI MIND are taking the opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to the mission to conduct research to discover solutions for Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders. UCI MIND investigators are unwavering in our commitment to this mission. The remainder of this newsletter, as with all of our newsletters, describes the manifold elements of the work of UCI MIND—from conducting fundamental basic science, to running vital clinical trials, to sharing our knowledge with you the community we serve and…
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Research often feels incremental, building slowly on studies of large cohorts of people over long periods of time who enable scientists to answer critical questions with a high degree of precision needed to detect meaningful, if small, differences between groups. But every once in a while, even a single research volunteer can empower science to move faster, changing the way we think about disease mechanisms or opportunities for treatment. Alzheimer’s disease research includes many such cases. They include people with early onset of Alzheimer’s disease that helped us understand genetic causes of the disease, who also taught us much about…
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Dr. Crystal M. Glover of UCI MIND joined the Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) Neuroscience Next in Yaoundé, Cameroon during February 24-27, 2025. AAIC Neuroscience Next scientific events took place at 12 global hubs or locations, with Yaoundé representing one site. The co-organizers of AAIC Neuroscience Next – Cameroon Hub were Dr. Alfred K. Njamnshi, Founder of the Brain Research Africa Initiative (BRAIN), and Dr. Bernard Fongang of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. These scientific events aimed to showcase research and related efforts focused on brain health in international contexts to facilitate scientific advancements, foster…
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Professor of Pathology at UCI and UCI MIND faculty member, Elizabeth Head, PhD, is featured in Newsweek because of a woman enrolled in her study who defied the odds. The woman did not experience the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease despite having Down syndrome, being of an advanced age, and having the hallmark pathological features of the disease in her brain. To read the full article, click here. To learn more about Dr. Head's research, check out our 2024 Annual Report.
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Marcelo Wood, PhD, professor and Chair of the department of Neurobiology and Behavior was quoted in The Transmitter about the decrease in admissions to PhD programs in Neuroscience fields including at UCI. To read the article, click here
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Today, the UCI MIND trainee-led organization ReMIND held its annual Emerging Scientists day at the UCI Student Center. This annual event gives UCI MIND graduate students, medical students, and post-doctoral scholars opportunities to get out of the laboratory to present their work through posters and oral presentations, to network with and learn from each other, and to generally stay excited about research and the progress we are making toward understanding and discovering solutions for Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders (ADRD) research. Today’s event showcased cutting edge science, ranging from innovative new mouse models and biomarker development to consideration of the…
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UCI MIND faculty member, Dr. Liz Head, was interviewed for Scientific American Lost Women of Science podcast about Dr. Marthe Gautier, the scientist who discovered the genetic cause of Down syndrome. To listen to the podcast, click here
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This week, I was honored to participate in a meeting convened by colleagues at the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute, organizers of the Alzheimer’s Prevention Initiative. The 1.5 day meeting in Pentagon City brought together a large variety of stakeholders, including researchers, advocates, pharmaceutical company scientists, non-profit organizations, and persons living with disease. It also included former US and current European regulatory officials (current US regulatory officials were not permitted to participate due to current federal communication pauses). The meeting was invigorating. Open dialogue ruled the day(s) and the optimism about progress toward discovering disease-delaying therapies was met with clear-eyed recognition of…
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The recently published book “Doctored” has been promoted in a variety of outlets including the New York Times, STAT, and National Public Radio. The book squarely takes aim at Alzheimer’s disease research, collating recent articles in Science magazine and levying troubling accusations at a handful of prominent researchers in the field. The book paints with a broad brush, implicating the entirety of the field’s work and suggesting that these few cases cast doubt on the recently approved anti-amyloid treatments that have now entered the clinic and may hold promise for delaying the onset of cognitive problems due to Alzheimer’s disease.…
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Dr. Leslie Thompson Leslie Thompson, PhD, a world renowned scientist and UCI MIND faculty member who studies Huntington disease, was recently quoted in Science about a new landmark paper in Cell. The paper uncovers a more dynamic picture of HTT, the gene responsible for causing the fatal neurodegenerative disease. To read Dr. Thompson's quotes in Science and learn about the study, click here.
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Happy Lunar New Year. UCI MIND is committed to improving Asian American representation in Alzheimer's disease research and highlighting the important contributions to research being made by our local communities. We wrote about these efforts in our Fall newsletter. Make this year the year you get involved in research. There are several opportunities to enroll in research: CARE Registry, UCI C2C Registry, ARISE Study, ACAD Study.
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Recent research has indicated that Americans face an increased lifetime risk of developing dementia. This finding has served as the topic of conversation from the New York Times to Saturday Night Live. Beneath the main headline, the increased lifetime risk of dementia was particularly pronounced among Black adults, who were in danger of developing dementia at three times the rate of White adults and with dementia arriving earlier. Dementia is life-changing for the person with cognitive impairment but also affects the spouses, adult children, and other supporters of older adults. In the article that sparked much of the recent attention,…
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If you live with or have lost a loved one to Alzheimer’s disease you may find yourself with an inbox filled with well-intentioned emails from family and friends, about the latest research on Alzheimer’s disease or the new cure that drug companies don’t want you to know about. A recent New York Times article hits a bit differently. Linde Jacobs is a woman in her 30s with two young daughters. Four weeks ago, she lost her mother to frontal temporal dementia (FTD) and the article begins with her waiting to hear her genetic test result, that is whether she has…
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Nicotinamide Results from Dr. Joshua Grill's Nicotinamide as an Early Alzheimer's Disease Treatment (NEAT), a phase 2 clinical trial of nicotinamide in early Alzheimer's, were recently published in Neurology and highlighted in PsyPost, an online psychology news outlet. To read the article published in PsyPost, click here.
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Dean Frank LaFerla, PhD Frank LaFerla, PhD, Dean of the Charlie Dunlop School of Biological Sciences, was quoted in the OC Register for its naming of Charlie Dunlop as one the 125 most Influential people. Dunlop generously donated $50 million to the school earlier this year. To read the list, click here
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Joshua Grill, PhD An article in Knowable Magazine lists the top scientific stories of 2024 and the progress in dementia care research was included. Dr. Joshua Grill provided his insights on blood test and disease modifying therapies. Read the article here.
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Message from the Director Alzheimer’s disease research is a year-round activity. Our fall newsletter finishes telling the story of our investigators’ busy summer, including playing active roles at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Philadelphia (p1). That conference was replete with presentations that drew major headlines (p 3), and some of the researchers who drew such headlines joined us at our 35th Annual Southern California Alzheimer’s Disease Research Conference (p6). This conference, co-sponsored with the Alzheimer’s Association and Alzheimer’s Orange County, traditionally features visiting faculty as well as our UCI talent, and this year was no exception. Our investigators remain…
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https://www.bio.uci.edu/uci-scientists-unveil-new-clues-to-alzheimers-disease-through-innovative-brain-analysis/
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Frank LaFerla, PhD The Orange County Business Journal named Frank LaFerla, PhD, Dean of the Charlie Dunlop School of Biological Sciences, as one of the OC500 for Education. Read the recognition here
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Since 2017, UCI MIND has partnered with the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement (WAM) at Cleveland Clinic, founded by Maria Shriver, to fund the Women’s Initiative. The initiative provides funding for research to better understand why women are at higher risk than men of developing Alzheimer’s disease. This year, the UCI MIND WAM at Cleveland Clinic Women’s Initiative is proud to support two exceptional investigators at UCI with groundbreaking research projects: Dr. María Corrada, Professor of Neurology in the School of Medicine and Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the Joe C. Wen School of Public Health, will explore "Estrogen Replacement Therapy and…
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An article in the New York Times is the latest to highlight the safety risks associated with recently approved new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, lecanemab and donanemab. Being a carrier of the e4 genotype for the apolipoprotein (APOE) gene, is a known risk factor for the most serious side effects of these medications—swelling and bleeding in the brain collectively known as Amyloid Related Imaging Abnormalities (ARIA). The article highlights that in some of the earlier studies of these drugs, participants were not given the opportunity to learn their APOE genotypes. The field has historically been reluctant to disclose APOE results…
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RAMP trainees stand next to Dr. Lorna Carlin (middle). The Daily Breeze, a local Southern California online news source, highlighted the Research and Mentorship Program (RAMP), a collaborative training initiative between UCI MIND and the UCI School of Medicine to pair 2nd year medical students with faculty studying neurodegenerative diseases. The goal is to inspire future clinicians to pursue research and to specialize in neurology and geriatrics. The program is supported by Dr. Lorna Carlin and Hilarity for Charity, a non-profit organization started by Laura Miller-Rogen and Seth Rogen. Read the article here
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Dr. Vivek Swarup, associate professor of Neurobiology and Behavior and UCI MIND faculty member, was quoted this week in the popular online Alzheimer's disease publication, AlzForum, regarding 4 new AD risk genes that have been identified.
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We are excited to announce that in January 2025, Dr. Crystal M. Glover will join UCI MIND as the ADRC's Outreach, Recruitment, and Engagement Core Leader. She will also serve as Associate Professor of Neurology in the UC Irvine School of Medicine. Dr. Glover is a world-renowned applied social psychologist, mixed methodologist, and health disparities researcher focused on social determinants of health as it relates to aging and dementia. Along with her many international and national leadership roles, Dr. Glover is the inaugural Editor-in-Chief of Alzheimer's and Dementia: Behavior & Socioeconomics of Aging. She will continue the important work she started…
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Message from the Director Dear Friends of UCI MIND, This summer, we lost our founder, Dr. Carl Cotman. Under Dr. Cotman’s leadership, UCI became an independent ADRC in 2000. He recruited many of UCI’s most prominent researchers and leaders, such as David Cribbs, Claudia Kawas, and Frank LaFerla. He also lured UCI researchers into collaborative work on dementia, such as Andrea Tenner, Ira Lott, and Marcelo Wood. He launched the Southern California Alzheimer’s Disease Research Conference, now in its 35th year; secured the Neurobiology of Aging NIH training grant, now in its 41st year; and established the UCI ADRC brain…
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https://pennmemorycenter.org/breaking-the-tyranny-of-treatment-a-new-perspective-on-alzheimers-care/
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This Hispanic Heritage Month, we proudly recognize the invaluable contributions of our faculty, staff, community partners, and supporters who are dedicated to addressing Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias in the Hispanic and Latino communities. Our mission to advance Alzheimer’s research is strengthened by the passion and collaboration of those working on the front lines to ensure more inclusive research and care. At the forefront of these efforts is our Hispanic Community Advisory Board, led by Dr. Christian Salazar. The Board is instrumental in guiding us on best practices for building strong connections with the more than 1 million Hispanic and…
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AlzForum, the popular online publication for Alzheimer's researchers, published a summary of recent advances from the MODEL-AD teams and highlighted the work of the principal investigators at UCI, Drs. Kim Green, Andrea Tenner, and Frank LaFerla. The article also called attention to innovative research in the Green Lab, including work by postdoctoral scholar, Dr. Claire Butler and graduate student Kristine Tran. To read the article, click here.
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Dr. Leigh Turner, Professor of Health, Society and Behavior, School of Public Health As part of a collaborative project with USC and other faculty at UCI, Dr. Leigh Turner has been awarded a 2 million dollar grant from National Science Foundation to use biocomputing and stem cells to build neural networks to one day combat neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Turner's role will be to study the ethical implications of this potential technology. Read the article in UCI News.
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https://news.uci.edu/2024/08/21/uc-irvine-discovery-of-item-memory-brain-cells-offers-new-alzheimers-treatment-target/
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The New York Times recently covered a remarkable study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study performed clinical and imaging assessments of 353 adults deemed to be in a minimally conscious or persistent vegetative state. These individuals, who had experienced severe brain injury, stroke, or hypoxia after cardiac arrest were unable to respond to any verbal command. Remarkably, 25% of the patients, when assessed with MRI or EEG, demonstrated an ability to respond to commands with their brain. That is, when they were asked to imagine themselves doing something, their brain response was the same as a normal adult's…
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A recent article in the New York Times, How Poor Sleep Affects Your Risk of Dementia, summarizes some recent findings showing both excessively short and long sleep, as well as sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, insomnia, and rapid-eye movement (REM) behavior disorder, may be linked with risk for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or other forms of dementia. Our recent findings from multiple studies at UCI are consistent with this interpretation. For example, in our most recent study , in collaboration with Alzheimer Biomarkers Consortium — Down Syndrome (ABC-DS) and UCI MIND investigators, we found symptoms of insomnia were more prevalent…
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Ahmad Sajjadi, MD, PhD, was interviewed on NBCLA yesterday evening about the news that former LA County Sheriff Lee Baca who lives with Alzheimer's disease, wandered away from his home. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbxF2XsLbDg
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Message from the Director Dear Friends of UCI MIND, Please enjoy the latest issue of MIND Matters from UCI MIND. In this Spring issue, we highlight a number of exciting updates about the impact UCI MIND investigators are having in the field. On the cover, post-doctoral fellow Dr. Claire Butler highlights progress made by the collaborative MODEL-AD group, including a publication she led. Another post-doctoral fellow, Dr. Jessica Noche, highlights an exciting collaboration in which UCI MIND investigators are playing a leading role on the Ann S. Bowers Women’s Brain Health Initiative (page 4). We also highlight several awards…
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Today, the US Food and Drug Administration granted full clinical approval to Eli Lilly to market donanemab, brand name KISUNLA, for the treatment of early Alzheimer’s disease, including Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) or mild dementia. Donanemab is a monoclonal antibody against the beta-amyloid protein that accumulates in the brain of people with Alzheimer’s disease. This represents the second ever full approval for a drug that directly targets the biology of Alzheimer’s disease. Image by Andrew Harnik/AP Donanemab was shown in a Phase 2 and then in a Phase 3 trial to have a significant impact on brain amyloid burden. In…
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A June 17 article in the Los Angeles Times highlighted an important safety risk associated with the new class of medications recently approved for treating Alzheimer’s disease. The drugs are anti-amyloid monoclonal antibodies and include aducanumab, donanemab, and lecanemab. Of these, only lecanemab has achieved full FDA approval at the time of writing. The side effects are collectively known as amyloid-related imaging abnormalities, or ARIA, and are potential side effects for each of these drugs, though with differential frequencies observed across the clinical trials of these medications. The specific drug side effects include what are often referred to as bleeding…
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Today, the FDA convened its Peripheral and Central Nervous System Drugs Advisory Committee to review the data from pivotal clinical trials of donanemab, a monoclonal antibody against the beta amyloid protein that accumulates in the brain of people with Alzheimer’s disease. One of these trials was conducted at UCI MIND. The efficacy of donanemab in treating early Alzheimer’s disease in people with Mild Cognitive Impairment and mild dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease is largely agreed to have been demonstrated. The bulk of the discussion at the meeting emphasized other aspects, such as the safety…
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