Alzheimer’s disease

Recent articles

Plaque levels differ in popular Alzheimer’s mouse model depending on which parent’s variants are passed down

5XFAD model mice that inherit two disease-related genes from their fathers have double the plaques seen in those with maternal inheritance, a new study shows.

By Shaena Montanari
4 February 2025 | 0 min watch
The word Doctored spelled out on pills.

‘Doctored: Fraud, Arrogance, and Tragedy in the Quest to Cure Alzheimer’s,’ an excerpt

In his new book, published today, investigative journalist Charles Piller tells the story of the scientific misconduct that shook Alzheimer’s disease research to its core, and the neuroscientist who helped to expose it.

By Charles Piller
4 February 2025 | 9 min read
A curly line connects two pencils that are hovering over overlapping speech bubbles.

Say what? The Transmitter’s top quotes of 2024

“We’ve cured mouse-heimer’s thousands of times...”—find out who said this to a Transmitter reporter, and read our other favorite quotes from the past year.

By The Transmitter
23 December 2024 | 2 min read
Six different neurons.

Early trajectory of Alzheimer’s tracked in single-cell brain atlases

Inflammation in glia and the loss of certain inhibitory cells may kick off a disease cascade decades before diagnosis.

By Angie Voyles Askham
23 October 2024 | 8 min read
A collage illustration of a woman’s face fragmented by a mosaic of X chromosomes, lines and shapes.

Brains, biases and amyloid beta: Why the female brain deserves a closer look in Alzheimer’s research

New results suggest the disease progresses differently in women, but we need more basic science to unpack the mechanisms involved.

By Rachel Buckley
22 October 2024 | 8 min listen
Colored transmission electron micrograph (TEM) showing an amyloid plaque in a brain with Alzheimer’s disease.

Skeptics challenge claims of Alzheimer’s disease transmission via growth hormone

Some people who received cadaver-derived human growth hormone may not have Alzheimer’s as previously suggested, according to a new Perspective article.

By Shaena Montanari
23 August 2024 | 6 min read
Research image of green and purple mouse brain slices.

Putting a bright idea to the test

A surprising wave of findings in mice suggests that light and sound flickering at 40 hertz clears the brain of Alzheimer’s-disease-linked plaques. Several companies are hoping to prove it works in people.

By Shaena Montanari
21 August 2024 | 11 min read
Research image of tau proteins in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease.

Supersized version of Alzheimer’s protein avoids clumping in brain

“Big tau” may explain why some brain regions, such as the cerebellum and brainstem, are largely spared from neurodegeneration, even though tau is expressed throughout the nervous system.

By Charles Q. Choi
16 August 2024 | 6 min read
Image of amyloid beta plaques.

Reviving ‘inside-out’ hypothesis of amyloid beta to explain Alzheimer’s mysteries

New research is resurfacing old ideas about where the protein forms the disease’s hallmark plaques.

By Elissa Welle
29 May 2024 | 9 min listen
Picture of two Degus in a cage.

How inbreeding almost tanked an up-and-coming model of Alzheimer’s disease

But new genetic analyses and behavioral assays have made the Chilean degu a viable model again, researchers say.

By Calli McMurray
21 May 2024 | 10 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

Cara Pugliese.

Autism program chief among National Institutes of Health layoffs

The termination is one of more than 1,000 employee cuts at the U.S. agency this week.

By Rachel Zamzow
21 February 2025 | 3 min read
Illustration of columns of text with eyes peeking out from behind the central column to look at a bright blue spot.

This paper changed my Life: Bill Newsome reflects on a quadrilogy of classic visual perception studies

The 1970s papers from Goldberg and Wurtz made ambitious mechanistic studies of higher brain functions seem feasible.

By Bill Newsome
21 February 2025 | 6 min read
Interconnected lines form a world map.

Science must step away from nationally managed infrastructure

Scientific data and independence are at risk. We need to work with community-driven services and university libraries to create new multi-country organizations that are resilient to political interference.

By Dan Goodman
20 February 2025 | 7 min read