The IOA has migrated its blog from WordPress to our website. All future IOA blog posts will be published here ..read more

It is widely known that Alzheimer’s is a heterogeneous disease. Patients may present differently not only with varying ages of onset, but also with the type of clinical symptoms they may experience ranging from problems with memory or language, spatial difficulty, or problems with motor function.  Renaud La Joie, PhD, Assistant Professor in Department of Neurology’s Memory and Aging Center at the University of California San Francisco recently presented at the University of Pennsylvania as part of the Institute on Aging’s Visiting Scholars Series to share how he and his team are working ..read more

In this issue: Genetic Variant, TREM2, Associated with Atypical Alzheimer’s Disease IOA Divisions IOA Retreat 2022: Fluid Biomarkers in AD Meet our IOA PennPREP Scholar IOA Members Program View the full PDF here. Genetic Variant, TREM2, Associated with Atypical Alzheimer’s Disease A University of Pennsylvania-led research study suggests that the rare genetic variant,TREM2, increases one’s risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) but also causes atypical symptoms. This finding could have a significant impact on how AD is diagnosed.  “We were able to demonstrate, with the largest brain autopsy ..read more

This year’s IOA Sylvan M. Cohen Annual Retreat focused on fluid biomarkers, the next wave of diagnostic tools in Alzheimer’s disease (AD).   “Biomarkers are an important part of dementia research. They help researchers detect early brain changes, better understand how risk factors are involved, identify participants who meet particular requirements for clinical trials and studies, and track participants’ responses to a test drug or other intervention, such as physical exercise.” – nia.nih.gov Topics covered included an update on biofluid-based biomakers for amyloid and neurodegeneratio ..read more

Introducing IOA Divisions With the recent leadership transition, the IOA has the opportunity to refresh its organizational structure. In alignment with its mission to improve the health of older adults by increasing the quality and quantity of clinical and basic research as well as educational programs focusing on normal aging and aging-related diseases across the entire Penn campus, the IOA will focus its efforts in four main areas, or IOA Divisions. Each division is led by members of the Penn faculty with expertise in their designated division who will serve liaisons for potential collabora ..read more

Donations are still rolling in from Penn Medicine’s 11th Annual 5K for the IOA and the Memory Mile Walk which has already raised a total of $50,485 in funds this year for Alzheimer’s and aging-related research and care at Penn’s Institute on Aging.  The run and walk took place Sunday, October 2, 2022 at Penn Park and had a total of 274 registered runners and walkers. It was a rainy morning, but plenty of people still came out to support the IOA.   This year’s race was in honor of John Q. Trojanowski, MD, PhD, former director of the IOA, who passed away earlier th ..read more

Congratulations to Virginia M.-Y. Lee, PhD, Director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research (CNDR) on being named a 2022 Clarivate Citation Laureate for her contribution to the identification of TDP-43, a pathological signature of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), and for other contributions to the study of neurodegenerative diseases. “I am deeply honored to be identified as a Clarivate Citation Laureate,” said Dr. Lee. It is her hope that her lifelong research identifying major disease proteins that define the neuro ..read more

Exciting news in the field of Alzheimer’s disease research emerged yesterday as results from Eisai and Biogen’s Phase 3 confirmatory Clarity AD clinical trial of lecanemab, an investigational anti-amyloid beta (AB) drug for the treatment of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and mild AD with confirmed presence of amyloid pathology in the brain, were announced. The study, which looked at 1,795 people with mild or early AD, reported slowed or reduced cognitive decline by 27% in those who received the drug compared to the placebo.  “I would say that th ..read more

John Q. Trojanowski, MD, PhD, former director of the Institute on Aging and world-renowned neurodegenerative disease researcher, was remembered at a Memorial Symposium held in his honor at the University of Pennsylvania last week.  “First and foremost, I welcome all of you. I know many of you have come a long way – some from Asia, Europe, the West Coast – and I really thank you for being here,” said Virginia M.-Y. Lee, PhD, Director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research (CNDR), lead organizer of the symposium, and most importantly Dr. Trojanowski’s partner in work and ..read more

Over the last decade, genomics studies in Parkinson’s Disease (PD) have identified approximately 90 areas of the genome associated with risk for PD. However, very few of those areas have been investigated in a way that confirms what genes, proteins, or biological pathways are involved and how they can be targeted therapeutically.  To address this, a team of Penn Medicine researchers led by Alice Chen-Plotkin, MD, Parker Family Professor of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania, took a known PD risk area – or locus – on chromosome 7 and used both computational methods and direc ..read more