One of the most upsetting aspects of age-related memory decline is not being able to remember the face that accompanies the name of a person you just talked with hours earlier. While researchers don’t understand why this dysfunction occurs, a new study conducted at University of Maryland School of Medicine has provided some important new clues.

Alzheimer's is often associated with so-called plaques in the brain. However, these protein deposits on neurons are probably not solely responsible for the disease. A new study by researchers at the Ruhr University Bochum, for example, provides evidence that certain protein residues can also penetrate into the interior of the cells and lead to their death.

A breakdown in how brain cells rid themselves of waste precedes the buildup of debris-filled plaques known to occur in Alzheimer’s disease, a new study in mice shows. This results could explain why drugs designed to remove amyloid deposits have failed to stop the disease.

People who received at least one influenza vaccine were 40 percent less likely than their non-vaccinated peers to develop Alzheimer’s disease over the course of four years, according to a new study from UT Health Houston.

Scientists at the UNC School of Medicine in the USA have successfully increased the production of neural stem cells and neurons by making use of optogenetic techniques to stimulate specific brain cells. These neurons are relevant to memory and emotion processing in animal models.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge in the UK and China’s Fudan University state the one requires no more than seven hours of sleep daily as one ages in order to maintain good cognitive performance and mental health.

In a new study by Arizona State University, researchers have discovered a potential treatment for Parkinson’s disease wherein they are able to carry out a process for converting non-neuronal cells into functioning neurons in the brain which can then dispense dopamine and restore dopaminergic cells destroyed by the Parkinson’s disease.

Research led by the University of Geneva, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, the University of Zurich and the pharmaceutical firm AbbVie, has revealed that a mutation in the APOE protein has the potential to change the lipid transport in the brain and may lead to the development of the Alzheimer’s disease.

With the aid of artificial stem cells, it will soon be possible to establish new treatments for previously incurable diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. At the Fraunhofer Project Center for Stem Cell Process Engineering SPT, a process for the mass production of these so called induced pluripotent stem cells is being developed.

Mission Lucidity brings clinicians, scientists, and engineers from Imec, KU Leuven, UZ Leuven, and VIB together to gain a deeper understanding of neurodegenerative disorders with the ultimate goal of curing and preventing them. One of the projects (Brain-on-chip) tackles Parkinson’s disease.