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A team of medical researchers and bioengineers developed a three-dimensional (3D) matrix model of wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) that can help with understanding what causes the disease and find effective treatments.
A study of 131 older adults shows that driving behavior may be a good way to identify Alzheimer’s disease before other symptoms appear.
Johns Hopkins University’s Sheila West, Ph.D., Pharm.D., a world-renowned expert on environmental factors and disparities causing blindness, was this month awarded the 2020 Helen Keller Prize for Vision Research. The Prize, presented by BrightFocus Foundation and the Helen Keller Foundation for Research and Education, honors scientific discovery and excellence and is chosen by an independent awards committee. The award was delayed by one year because of the pandemic.
May 3, 2021—BrightFocus Foundation, a leading private funder of scientific research on diseases of mind and sight, today announced its 2021 named awards for macular degeneration and glaucoma research at the annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO).
Tau is a protein that misfolds in Alzheimer’s disease, causing it to accumulate and aggregate in the brain, contributing to cognitive decline. Mice engineered to lack tau are protected from neuronal damage, and when levels of tau are reduced in mouse models of Alzheimer’s, their memory improves. Therefore, reducing tau may be a good therapeutic option for AD.
Dr. Croft, Dr. Golde, and colleagues used a method, consisting of thin sections of brain tissue from mice that were kept alive for months in cell culture dishes, to model how tau accumulates and changes in the brain. Their results showed that brain tissue containing the normal, nonpathological versions of tau do not form inclusions. The researchers were surprised to find that these tau inclusions weren’t just static clumps of protein.
In a study of more than 1,200 people, researchers show that individuals with higher levels of saturated fats in their blood are more likely to develop dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.
BrightFocus Foundation announces $25.3 million in new grants.
Recently, when their groundbreaking genetics discovery was featured on the cover of Nature, the research team thanked BrightFocus for critical early funding that supported their accomplishments.
BrightFocus-funded researchers discover a potential new treatment approach for Alzheimer’s - restoring the function of regulatory T cells (Tregs) to control the body’s immune response and suppress Alzheimer’s-associated brain inflammation.
