On November 30, The Boston Globe reported on a paper published by grantee Reisa Sperling, MD, MMSc, in Science Translational Medicine, which called for subjects with less advanced Alzheimer’s disease in drug trials. Dr. Sperling and her colleagues made the case that the failure of recent trials of drugs targeting the build-up of plaques in the brain that characterizes Alzheimer’s may be because the subjects in the trials, who had advanced Alzheimer’s, have already undergone too much damage for a benefit to be detectable. Dr. Sperling is designing a trial in which subjects with plaque accumulation, but without the level of cognitive impairment normally used to diagnose Alzheimer’s, will test potential Alzheimer’s treatments. Dr. Sperling is Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, Department of Neurology and Brigham and Women's Hospital, and a recipient of a 2003 Paul B. Beeson Career Development Award in Aging Research Program.
