Two-Day Symposium on Neurological Disease Features Latest Research in Alzheimer’s, ALS

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If the modern field of Alzheimer’s disease research can be traced to any single event, it might be when Colin L. Masters, M.D., and Konrad Beyreuther, Ph.D., identified the sequence of the protein beta amyloid in the brain of a patient with Alzheimer’s more than two decades ago. Amyloid, the sticky protein found in clumps in the brains of those with Alzheimer’s, is thought to be one of the prime culprits behind the mind-robbing illness.

Small wonder that Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia is honoring Dr. Masters, Laureate Professor in the Department of Pathology in the School of Medicine at the University of Melbourne, and Dr. Beyreuther, Professor and Director of the Institute for Molecular Biology at the University of Heidelberg, with its prestigious Lennox K. Black International Prize for Excellence in Medicine on October 23, 2006. The award will be given in an afternoon ceremony during a symposium, Molecular Basis of Neurological Disease, held October 23 and 24, on the Jefferson campus at the Bluemle Life Sciences Building, 233 S. 10 th Street.

Later that afternoon, former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno will discuss her experiences with living with Parkinson’s disease.

According to symposium organizer Sam Gandy, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Farber Institute for Neurosciences of Thomas Jefferson University, Drs. Masters and Beyreuther’s work led to the discovery of Alzheimer’s genes, and within the last three years, has made possible the advent of a potentially revolutionary technology called amyloid load PET scanning. Such scans employ compounds that bind to amyloid plaques in the brain, enabling doctors and scientists for the first time to visualize plaque build-up in humans.

Dr. Gandy, who is also professor of neurology and biochemistry and molecular biology at Jefferson Medical College, says that their research has also led to three major areas of anti-amyloid therapies: anti-clumping medications; vaccination; and enzyme modulators.

At the symposium, scientists will address a wide range of topics. Chester Mathis, Ph.D., from the University of Pittsburgh, for example, will discuss the promise of PET load scanning, which could include improved diagnosis and drug discovery in Alzheimer’s disease. Virginia Lee, Ph.D., from the University of Pennsylvania, will talk about a recent finding linking an abnormal accumulation of a previously unknown protein that clumps inside nerve cells in both frontotemporal dementia and the crippling, neurogenerative disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. Other topics to be discussed include the neurobiology of stress, neuro-oncology, and interplay between viruses, the immune system and the central nervous system.

The Lennox K. Black Prize is given biennially by the Jefferson College of Graduate Studies to an international researcher who is accomplished in his or her field. In recent years, Jefferson has begun holding a research symposium to accompany the awarding of the prize.