• Dr. Karen Duff and colleagues have found a process in the brain that may help explain the link between Alzheimer’s and stroke. Findings are published in the March 13, 2008 issue of Neuron. Read more here.
  
  
• Dr. Richard Mayeux was awarded the 2007 Potamkin Prize by the American Academy of Neurology. He was honored for his work showing that Alzheimer’s likely results from a complex mixture of altered genes and environmental factors.
  
  
• Jose A. Luchsinger, MD, Florence Irving Assistant Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, has received a one-year, $100,000 research grant from the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation for pilot testing of the diabetes drug Metformin as a preventive measure against cognitive decline. The foundation was established to expand programs initiated by the Institute for the Study of Aging, a foundation started by the family of cosmetics entrepreneur Estee Lauder.
  
  
• Christian Habeck has received two grants from the NIH.  The first grant, from the National Institute of Aging, supports a 5 year longitudinal study acquiring cerebral blood-flow data of 20 Alzheimer’s patients, 60 subjects with mild cognitive impairment and 20 healthy controls at 3 time points, using Arterial Spin Labeling Magnetic Resonance Imaging and sophisticated data-analytic techniques. The goal is to derive a marker for early Alzheimer's disease, and test its prognostic and diagnostic ability on the data of the mildly cognitively impaired patients. 
  
  Funds from the second grant, from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, support a project that deals with multivariate mathematical approaches to neuroimaging analysis both in cognitive and clinical neuroscience. Multivariate techniques, which help identify networks of neurological activity across brain regions, will be compared and contrasted with univariate approaches, which do not provide information about region-by-region correlation in the brain. The funds will also be used to design a user-friendly multivariate analysis software package geared towards end-users in the neuroscience community who do not have special mathematical training.
  
  
• Ottavio Arancio, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pathology, has received a two-year, $376,000 grant from the National Institute on Aging. Funds will be used to develop and generate new molecules that enhance a specific signaling pathway in the synapse that Dr. Arancio has already identified, via mouse model, as dysfunctional during the plaque disposition process in Alzheimer’s disease, disrupting both memory and brain plasticity.
  
  
• Adam M. Brickman, PhD, assistant professor of neuropsychology, has been awarded $770,000 over five years by the National Institute on Aging to study the impact of age on structural markers of pathology in the brain and how these age-related changes impact cognitive abilities in older adults.
  
  
• Dr. Nikolaos Scarmeas discussed Alzheimer's Disease and answered listeners' questions on the Leonard Lopate radio show.  Listen to the archived broadcast here.
  
  
• Dr. Lucien Cote received the Distinguished Practioner Award by the Society of Practitioners at Columbia University Medical Center.  The award recognizes Dr. Cote's outstanding clinical ability, his contributions to the development of clinical medicine within CUMC, and his serving as role model for countless numbers of clinicians and students who have worked and trained in this center, says Dr. Paul F. Simonelli, President of The Society of Practitioners.
  
  
• Dr. Scott Small's research reveals that physical exercise can improve memory.  Read more here or in Newsweek's cover story.
  
  
• A team led by Dr. Richard Mayeux has identified a gene, SORL1, associated with the most common form of Alzheimer's Disease.  The discovery opens a new pathway to explore treatments or preventions.  Read more here.
  
  
• Researchers led by Dr. Jose Luchsinger have identified an association with folate or folic acid intake and a reduced risk of Alzheimer's Disease.  Read more here.
  
  
• The Taub Institute was cited for Best Alzheimer's Care in New York by New York Magazine.
  
  
• Dr. Lloyd A. Greene has been elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science:

Lloyd A. Greene, Ph.D., professor of pathology in the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior, was cited for outstanding contributions to our understanding of neuronal development, differentiation, and survival, as well as service to the community through the development of model systems for studying these and other events.