BrainBlog

From the FDA on the 25th of October, quoting the press release: FDA approves second brain imaging drug to help evaluate patients for Alzheimer’s disease, dementia The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Vizamyl (flutemetamol F 18 injection), a radioactive diagnostic drug for use with positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of the brain in adults being evaluated for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and dementia. Dementia is associated with diminishing brain functions such as memory, judgment, language and complex motor skills. The dementia caused by AD is associated with the accumulation in the brain of an abnormal protein called beta amyloid and damage or death of brain cells. However, beta amyloid can also be found in the brain of patients with other dementias and in elderly people without neurologic disease. Vizamyl works by attaching to beta amyloid and producing a PET image of the brain that is used to evaluate the presence of beta amyloid. A negative Vizamyl s...

From Cardiff University News Centre: New Alzheimer’s risk genes discovered in record study 27 October 2013 "In the largest ever study of its kind, an international collaboration of scientists, jointly led by Cardiff, has uncovered 11 new susceptibility genes linked with Alzheimer’s disease. "This major breakthrough will significantly advance scientists’ knowledge of Alzheimer’s. It throws open new research avenues and enables a better understanding of the disease’s disordered functional processes." Read the full press release here .

The HarvardX edX course "Fundamentals of Clinical Trials" started yesterday. Here is some information about the course [click here] . The content for Week One is quite good and presented well by the course faculty. From the course information page: [snip] "This course will provide an introduction to the scientific, statistical, and ethical aspects of clinical trials research. Topics include the design, implementation, and analysis of trials, including first-in-human studies (dose-finding, safety, proof of concept, and Phase I), Phase II, Phase III, and Phase IV studies. All aspects of the development of a study protocol will be addressed, including criteria for the selection of participants, treatments, and endpoints, randomization procedures, sample size determination, data analysis, and study interpretation. The ethical issues that arise at each phase of therapy development will be explored. "This course contains 12 modules. The modules will be released ...

Last week, The Dana Foundation offered online this general overview to Lewy Body Dementia: Lewy Body Dementia: The Under-Recognized but Common Foe By Meera Balasubramaniam and James E. Galvin October 02, 2013 Read the article

The conference website homepage is canadianconferenceondementia.com