UCI MIND faculty member, Craig Stark, PhD was recently quoted in Science Magazine discussing the critical role scientists play in helping improve society. The article focuses on a push to better understand the science behind addiction, and how scientists are spreading evidence-based treatment knowledge through regional and national seminars. By regularly hosting seminars to gather scientific and legal experts, researchers can better inform the criminal justice system on how to improve substance abuse recovery rates in the incarcerated population. Dr. Stark, a neurobiologist who specializes in brain imaging at UCI, has presented at dozens of these legal seminars, speaking on…
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Stewart Cohen/Getty Images NPR recently spoke on All Things Considered about the EXERT Study, a nationwide clinical trial of exercise led by Carl Cotman, PhD, UCI MIND's Founding Director, and Laura Baker, PhD, Associate Director of the ADRC at Wake Forest School of Medicine. The study involves an 18-month exercise program at the local YMCA for 65-89 year-olds with Mild Cognitive Impairment. Throughout the program, researchers look at participants' cognition, blood flow, atrophy (cell loss), and harmful protein accumulation in the brain. Researchers hope to learn about the clinical effect of exercise, as well as the scientific basis for their…
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Facebook Live Series - ASK THE DOC: Alzheimer's Research Today! This monthly series features short talks and Q&A with experts from the University of California, Irvine Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders (UCI MIND), 1 of 32 congressionally designated Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers in the nation. Join UCI MIND on Facebook (@UCIrvineMIND) the first Friday of every month from 9:00-9:30 AM PST to learn about advances in research to improve Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. Episode 6: "What medications can I take to prevent or treat Alzheimer's?" This month, we're joined by Steven Tam, MD. Dr. Tam is…
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The Global Council on Brain Health (GCBH), in partnership with AARP, recently released an extensive report reviewing the current evidence on brain health supplements. AARP formed the GCBH by bringing together an independent group of scientists, physicians, researchers, and other experts. Click here to learn more about these specialists. The GCBH found that there was a lack of evidence for effectiveness, concerns about false claims in marketing, and uncertainty of the possible risks of brain health supplements, since they are not required to be reviewed for purity, safety, and efficacy. The GCBH concluded that no endorsement could be made for…
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Contributed by Joshua Grill, PhD The field of Alzheimer’s disease drug development received more troubling news yesterday, when the leaders of the GENERATION program halted their prevention clinical trials of a drug aiming to prevent the formation of the beta amyloid protein in people at risk to get Alzheimer’s disease. The GENERATION program is led by investigators at Banner Alzheimer’s Institute and is an important study in people at increased genetic risk to someday develop Alzheimer’s disease, based on the apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene. The trials were stopped because preliminary results indicated that the drug under study, CNP520 (being developed…
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Contributed by Joshua Grill, PhD, Director of UCI MIND A recent report from The Economist concludes that three neurological disorders — migraine, multiple sclerosis, and Alzheimer’s disease — are impacting workplace productivity. Notably, all three conditions disproportionately affect women. While it is now clear that Alzheimer’s disease begins decades prior to diagnosis, the larger impact on the global economy results from the growing number of workers who are trying to balance employment as well as caregiving for a parent with the disease. More than 16 million Americans are unpaid caregivers for someone with Alzheimer’s disease and the most common caregiver is…
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Contributed by Carl W. Cotman, PhD and Nicole C. Berchtold, PhD It is increasingly recognized that exercise builds brain health. At a fundamental level, brain health and function depend on the expression of the brain’s genes, the building blocks of cells. In a recent paper that appeared in the journal “Neurobiology of Aging” (2019), Drs. Carl Cotman, Nicole Berchtold and coworkers demonstrated that in the brains of healthy older people, exercise reprograms gene expression patterns to a more youthful state, even in cognitively normal people (75-100 yrs old). Genes that were particularly targeted are those that boost cellular energy production and build…
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Facebook Live Series - ASK THE DOC: Alzheimer's Research Today! This monthly series features short talks and Q&A with experts from the University of California, Irvine Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders (UCI MIND), 1 of 32 congressionally designated Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers in the nation. Join UCI MIND on Facebook (@UCIrvineMIND) the first* Friday of every month from 9:00-9:30 AM PST to learn about advances in research to improve Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. Episode 5: "Is there a blood test for Alzheimer's?" This month, we're joined by Mark Mapstone, PhD. Dr. Mapstone earned a PhD in…
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Contributed by Joan Steffan, PhD In a recent paper published in Proceedings of the National Academic of Sciences, colleagues and I show that a critical regulator of the immune system - called kinase IKKbeta - helps slow the onset of Huntington’s disease (HD) in mice, and this may be due to activation of a process called autophagy. Autophagy helps cells clean out and recycle their 'trash'. Accumulation of trash can occur as we age and when disease is present, so regular cleaning enabled by autophagy is critical to maintain cellular function. In HD, brain cell autophagy fails, leading to an accumulation of harmful proteins that…
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Contributed by Joan Steffan, PhD & Leslie Thompson, PhD Results from a recent study published by Tabrizi and colleagues and Ionis/Roche Pharmaceuticals in The New England Journal of Medicine are very exciting for the Huntington’s disease (HD) patient, family, and scientific communities. The researchers showed for the first time that treatment with a huntingtin lowering drug called an antisense oligonucleotide, or ASO, is safe in HD patients. Huntingtin is the protein linked to the genetic mutation that causes HD. With these results, researchers are planning a large clinical trial to test whether ASO can reduce symptoms in HD patients. The HD community is…
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Contributed by Bryce Mander, PhD The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently required some sleep medications which are commonly used to treat insomnia to add black box warning labels. The reason for this decision is because there have been reported incidents of individuals engaging in activities that commonly occur during wakefulness during sleep while on these medications, including sleep walking, sleep driving, sleep eating, and sleep cooking. On rare occasions, these symptoms have resulted in serious injuries or life-threatening incidents, which has led to the inclusion of the black box label. The FDA has also issued a contraindication for…
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Contributed by Craig Stark, PhD Researchers from the UK have just released a report showing how we can extract valuable cognitive data out of video game performance. Using the mobile game Sea Hero Quest, which relies heavily on spatial memory and navigation, the researchers were able to discriminate healthy aging from those at-risk for Alzheimer's. By using games that are fun and engaging, but are designed to tap into specific brain processes, we can usher in a new era of diagnosis. Research in my lab here at UCI is further looking at whether playing certain kinds of video games can actually…
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Facebook Live Series - ASK THE DOC: Alzheimer's Research Today! This monthly series features short talks and Q&A with experts from the University of California, Irvine Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders (UCI MIND), 1 of 32 congressionally designated Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers in the nation. Join UCI MIND on Facebook (@UCIrvineMIND) the first Friday of every month from 9:00-9:30 AM PST to learn about advances in research to improve Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. Episode 4: "Are there any promising vaccines for Alzheimer's?" This month, we're joined by Elizabeth Head, PhD. Dr. Head earned a PhD in…
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UCI MIND, in partnership with UCI School of Biological Sciences and UCI Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, hosted the annual Distinguished Lecture on the Brain in March at the Irvine Barclay Theatre. Guest speaker Ronald C. Petersen, MD, PhD, Director of the Mayo Clinic Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, delivered an insightful lecture on the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease in the era of biomarkers to hundreds of audience members, both in-person and via livestream. The full lecture is available below and on our YouTube channel. Stay tuned for details on the 2020 Distinguished Lecture on the Brain.
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Contributed by Andrea J. Tenner, PhD Researchers at McGill University recently published results from a clinical trial of the common non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), naproxen, showing that it was ineffective at preventing Alzheimer's disease (AD) in cognitively unimpaired people with a family history. I am not surprised by this result, as naproxen is a nonselective inhibitor of inflammatory mediators. Dr. Breitner, the lead investigator on the manuscript, is an excellent physician scientist. The study authors indicated that the results do not rule out a benefit from mid-life anti-inflammatory drugs, and that the study turned out to have too few participants…
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The Atlantic - April 11, 2019. Kim Green, a neurobiologist at UC Irvine, notes mutant mice lacking microglia have broadly similar patterns of disorganization in their brains. These mice models essentially predicted what would happen in the human. He had just never expected to see a person without microglia. “It’s absolutely remarkable,” he says.
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Contributed by S. Ahmad Sajjadi, MD, PhD, Neurologist Last week, the results of a very important and highly anticipated study, the IDEAS (Imaging Dementia – Evidence For Amyloid Scanning) study, were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). This national multi-center study, including UC Irvine, enrolled more than 11,000 Medicare beneficiaries with cognitive impairment to undergo a special type of scan called amyloid positron emission tomography (PET). Amyloid PET scan provides the opportunity to visualize the accumulation of abnormal amyloid plaques on the brain. Amyloid and tau proteins are the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The study…
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AARP - April 10, 2019. “A common situation is an older adult becoming concerned about their memory and taking a supplement to try to ward off dementia,” says Joshua Grill, director of the Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders at the University of California, Irvine. “But in reality, if they saw their doctor, they might find out that another medical condition such as hypothyroidism, or a certain prescription medication, is causing symptoms and can be easily treated. They're just making things worse.” And if you do have dementia, he adds, you could start a drug treatment to relieve symptoms,…
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Contributed by Christian Salazar, PhD, Project Scientist The link between gum disease and Alzheimer’s disease has received considerable attention over the past few years. The recent laboratory findings in mice from Potempa and colleagues are consistent with evidence from mostly cross-sectional observational studies in humans that suggest an association between the two diseases. However, as the article notes, we are still far from establishing a cause-and-effect relationship in humans. Not only is there difficulty in translating findings from mice to humans, but cross-sectional studies that collect data at one point in time can have many methodological limitations. For example, poor…
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Facebook Live Series - ASK THE DOC: Alzheimer's Research Today! This monthly series features short talks and Q&A with experts from the University of California, Irvine Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders (UCI MIND), 1 of 32 congressionally designated Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers in the nation. Join UCI MIND on Facebook (@UCIrvineMIND) the first Friday of every month from 9:00-9:30 AM PST to learn about advances in research to improve Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. Episode 3: "Is Alzheimer's an immune disorder?" This month, we're joined by Andrea Tenner, PhD. Dr. Tenner earned her PhD from UC San…
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Contributed by Joshua Grill, PhD, Director of UCI MIND The global research effort to find effective treatments for Alzheimer’s disease has suffered another disappointing setback. Biogen announced today that the company will halt the parallel large Phase 3 trials of the monoclonal antibody against the amyloid beta protein, aducanumab. This treatment was viewed by many to hold tremendous promise. Early results were unprecedented. Patients with Alzheimer’s disease who were treated with aducanumab showed significant reduction in amyloid burden in the brain, which appeared to slow disease progression. The results were based on a small number of participants, however, and were not…
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Facebook Live Series - ASK THE DOC: Alzheimer's Research Today! This monthly series features short talks and Q&A with experts from the University of California, Irvine Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders (UCI MIND), 1 of 32 congressionally designated Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers in the nation. Join UCI MIND on Facebook (@UCIrvineMIND) the first Friday of every month from 9:00-9:30 AM PST to learn about advances in research to improve Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. Episode 2: "What causes memory problems in older adults?" Dr. Ahmad Sajjadi is Assistant Professor of Neurology in the UCI School of Medicine.…
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Chelsea holding her father's hand at a psychiatric hospital, days before he passed away with Alzheimer's disease at the age of 61 In an interview with UCI undergraduate students, Chelsea Cox, Associate Director of Eduction for UCI MIND, shares her personal journey with Alzheimer's disease, her perspective on care and research, and how people - young and old - can get involved in the cause. "...No one should have to spend their final days that way. This experience is what motivated me to get involved in Alzheimer’s research and education. So that hopefully, one day, other people don’t have to…
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Maria Shriver discusses the importance of clinical trial participation and the EXERT Study of exercise in adults (65-89) with memory concerns. To learn more about this study, led by Carl Cotman, PhD at UCI MIND, call (949) 824-0008 or email research@mind.uci.edu.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Robert K. Chin/Alamy On February 11, the FDA issued a statement and 12 warning letters related to an aggressive change in the agency’s regulation of dietary supplements. The statement was outlined in the New York Times. The main objective of the new approach is enhanced protection of consumers from mislabeled and unproven claims about treatment of disease. At the core of the problem are a number of companies that specifically target people with Alzheimer’s disease and people who are concerned about developing Alzheimer’s disease. A list of the companies receiving warning letters, as well as links to the letters, can…
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Facebook Live Series - ASK THE DOC: Alzheimer's Research Today! This monthly series features short talks and Q&A with experts from the University of California, Irvine Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders (UCI MIND), 1 of 32 congressionally designated Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers in the nation. Join UCI MIND on Facebook (@UCIrvineMIND) the first Friday of every month from 9:00-9:30 AM PST to learn about advances in research to improve Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. Episode 1: "Can poor sleep cause Alzheimer's?" Bryce Mander, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry & Human Behavior at UCI. He received his…
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Leslie Thompson, PhD, Chancellor's Professor of Psychiatry & Human Behavior, Neurobiology & Behavior (Photo credit: Steve Zylius/UCI) UCI News, January 30, 2019 - "Leslie Thompson of the Sue & Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center and UCI MIND has been awarded $6 million by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to continue her CIRM-supported efforts to create stem cell treatments for Huntington’s disease. The funding will allow the Thompson lab to conduct the late-stage testing needed to apply to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for permission to start a clinical trial in people. The therapy involves transplanting stem cells…
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Eric Doran, Manager of UCI MIND’s Down Syndrome Program, has partnered with his longtime friend and playwright, Steven Oberman, to tell the true story of Dr. John Langdon Down, the man who first described Down syndrome. We interviewed Mr. Doran to learn more about the vision behind this new play, Blurred at the Edges, set to run in March of 2019 at the Diversionary Theatre in San Diego. Eric Doran, MS What is the vision behind Blurred at the Edges? Down syndrome is named after Dr. John Langdon Down, a British physician who first described the condition in 1866. Most…
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Contributed by Joshua Grill, PhD, Director of UCI MIND Colleagues at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center published a timely critique in JAMA on a concerning and increasing practice in the United States. “Pseudomedicine” is a practice whereby qualified healthcare professionals prescribe supplements or other therapies that are not covered by insurance, and therefore require cash payments, for personal financial gain. Pseudomedicine is especially problematic among older patients and family members concerned about memory loss and desperate for effective therapies to slow or stop the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Other examples of pseudomedicine include recommendations for brain healthy diet plans…
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Carl Cotman, PhD A study was recently published in the journal Neurology about physical activity's relation to Alzheimer's disease and cognition in older adults. NPR asked UCI MIND founding director Dr. Carl Cotman to comment on this impressive study, noting that exercise might "'offset the ill effects of brain degeneration.' He adds that lifestyle interventions such as an increase in physical activity and movement can be powerful even in the presence of disease." Click here to read the article > Dr. Cotman is leading a national clinical trial of exercise at UCI MIND. The trial aims to evaluate whether 18 months…
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Bryce Mander, PhD Colleagues at Washington University School of Medicine published novel findings on the correlation between tau tangles, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease pathology, and sleep quality in people who were cognitively normal or who had mild cognitive impairment. On ALZFORUM, UCI MIND faculty member, Dr. Bryce Mander commented, “This is an important paper because it shows for the first time how tau is related to sleep deficits. That’s going to be important in advancing our understanding of how Alzheimer’s disease pathology affects sleep.” Dr. Mander, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry & Human Behavior at UCI, has published several important findings on…
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Dr. Ira Lott, Director of the UCI MIND Down Syndrome Program, discussed the connection between Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease with the Orange County Business Journal this week. Dr. Lott and his team conduct critical research studies with volunteer participants to improve understanding of brain aging and dementia in Down syndrome. Click here to read the article > To learn more about studies in Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease, click here >
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Contributed by Joshua Grill, PhD, Director of UCI MIND In a new study, colleagues at the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at Washington University have found that levels of the cerebrospinal fluid protein tau, one of the hallmark pathologies in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), is lower in African Americans compared to Whites. This was true both for older participants who did and did not have memory problems. The study is not the first to find such differences between African Americans and Caucasians and it has important implications to a number of important areas of AD research. First, there is a growing movement…
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Vivek Swarup, PhD, Assistant Professor of Neurobiology & Behavior UCI MIND faculty member, Dr. Vivek Swarup, and colleagues at UCLA, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. in Japan, Emory University School of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, published novel findings yesterday in Nature Medicine on two major groups of genes associated with Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia and unraveled a novel microRNA, miR-203, as a master regulator of neuronal death. In human cell cultures containing AD-associated mutations, the researchers showed that certain experimental drugs altered the loss of brain cells associated with neurodegenerative disease. Dr. Swarup says, “I’m hopeful these important findings…
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Fall 2018 Newsletter - In this issue of MIND Matters: - Grand Opening of UCI Sleep Center led by Dr. Ruth Benca - Wine for the MIND hosted by Bob & Virginia Naeve - Meet the REMIND Co-Chairs - Study Partners in Alzheimer's Research: Gwen Ritchie - Philanthropist Highlight: Greg & Cindy Lai - Donations, Sept 2017-2018 ----- Click to read the Fall 2018 Newsletter - MIND Matters
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UCI MIND faculty member Dr. Mathew Blurton-Jones was awarded a $500,000 grant from Orange County Community Foundation to test 1200+ FDA-approved compounds for effectiveness in Alzheimer's disease treatment. His lab seeks to find the top 20 genes and drugs that safely prevent brain damage caused by microglia, which are critical immune cells in the brain that 'prune' unnecessary neuronal connections, or synapses. In the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease, damage can be caused by microglia 'overpruning' synapses, leading to loss of necessary connections. UCI News reports that Dr. Blurton-Jones and his team are "grateful to be the recipients of this…
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Dr. Ira Lott with research participant in UCI MIND Down Syndrome Program UCI MIND faculty member, Dr. Ira Lott, is one of the world's leading experts in unraveling the link between Down syndrome and Alzheimer's disease (Learn more in the Winter 2016 issue of MIND Matters). His team has been selected as a Center of Excellence for the new Down Syndrome Clinical Trial Network (DS-CTN) launched by LuMIND, a Down syndrome research foundation. As part of this important network, Dr. Lott and his team will receive funding to conduct clinical trials of promising therapies for participants with Down syndrome, at…
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Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images In a letter released on Tuesday, October 23, retired supreme court justice Sandra Day O'Connor announced a diagnosis of probable Alzheimer's dementia, and that she will begin stepping down from public life. O'Connor, the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court, was a devoted caregiver to her husband John after his Alzheimer's diagnosis in 2005. NPR reports the reaction of Chief Justice John Roberts: "I was saddened to learn that Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, like many Americans, faces the challenge of dementia. But I was not at all surprised that she used the occasion of sharing that…
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As we gather for our annual conference, today, September 21st, is World Alzheimer's Day. Maria Shriver penned a powerful op-ed with the support of UCI MIND Director Dr. Joshua Grill to inspire us to join together to overcome Alzheimer's disease. To read Maria Shriver's challenge, click here >
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This week Alzforum posted coverage from the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference, including UCI MIND Director Dr. Joshua Grill's presentation of data from The A4 Study (Anti-Amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic Alzheimer's Disease Study). In The A4 Study, a secondary prevention trial of late-onset Alzheimer's disease, people with elevated amyloid had higher levels of memory complaints than those without elevated amyloid. To read the full article, click here >
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Orange Coast Magazine just named our upcoming research conference in the "20 Can’t-Miss Health Events in O.C. To Keep You Healthy!" Don't miss your chance to attend Trials Today, Treatments Tomorrow, Sept. 21 at the Irvine Marriott. Tickets: http://bit.ly/alzconference or call 949.757.3720 x 3733. "Alzheimer’s affects more than 84,000 people in Orange County. This conference, hosted by the UC Irvine Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders (UCI MIND) and Alzheimer’s Orange County, will bring world-renowned experts to Irvine to discuss progress in the battle against Alzheimer’s." -- Orange Coast Magazine
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