Tech Transfer: Alzheimer's Biomarkers

Guests: Steven Graves, Ph.D, Professor of Biochemistry at BYU; Mike Alder, BYU’s Technology Transfer Office  As baby boomers age, doctors are expecting a big jump in the number of people with Alzheimer’s and dementia. Some estimates say the prevalence of Alzheimer’s will triple in the next 30 years. We tend to think of any chronic memory loss as being Alzheimer’s, but it’s actually a very specific disease involving degeneration of brain tissue that happens to also be very difficult to diagnose. Typically, a doctor will administer memory tests over many years before diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease. They may do a probe of the brain to see if the damage resembles what we know about Alzheimer’s. But the only sure way to know if that’s really what’s causing the dementia is to do an autopsy of the brain once the patient has died.   Researchers at BYU have hit upon a simple blood test that could improve the accuracy of an Alzheimer’s diagnosis before death. And could also help improve the accuracy of clinical studies looking for drugs to treat the disease.