While colleagues are focused on the more common brain compound amyloid,
one University of Pennsylvania research team is examining a secondary Alzheimer's compound
with the help of a $1.5 million robot, The New York Times reports.
Amyloid and plaque are easier to track. There are new scans that show
plaque in the brain, while scans for tau, which forms spaghetti-like
tangles inside dying nerve cells, are in much earlier stages of
development.
But while nearly everyone is now focused on amyloid, a few, like Dr.
John Q. Trojanowski and Dr. Virginia M.Y. Lee of the University of
Pennsylvania, have made studying tau their life’s mission. They even
have a drug-discovery program, and a $1.5 million robot to help. So far,
after a decade of work, they say they have a few promising compounds
but nothing has been tested in people.
Original Source: The New York Times
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