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Newsletter, Volume 18(2), Summer 2011 Knight ADRC and the Memory & Aging Project

Inside This Issue:

HORIZONS

Charles F. and Joanne Knight

Alzheimer’s DiseAse reseArch center (ADrc)

For the first time in 27 years, clinical diagnostic crite-

ria for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) dementia have been

revised. The National Institute on Aging/Alzheimer’s

Association Diagnostic Guidelines for Alzheimer’s

Disease cover the disease as it gradually changes

over many years. Importantly, the guidelines now

address the use of imaging and biomarkers in blood

and spinal fluid that may help determine whether

changes in the brain and those in body fluids are due

to AD. Biomarkers are increasingly employed in the

research setting to detect onset of the disease and to

track progression, but cannot yet be used routinely in

clinical diagnosis.

The original 1984 clinical criteria for AD, reflecting

the limited knowledge of the day, defined AD as hav-

ing a single stage, dementia, and based diagnosis

solely on clinical symptoms. It assumed that people

free of dementia symptoms were disease-free. Diag-

nosis was confirmed only at autopsy, when the hall-

Alzheimer's Diagnostic Guidelines Updated

The Memory and Aging

Project is honored to

recognize Mr. Leo

Keshner upon comple-

tion of his 31st annual

clinical assessment.

Mr. Keshner is the long-

est tenured participant

in the Memory and Ag-

ing Project, and we are

grateful for his contin-

ued support of and en-

thusiasm in aging re-

search. Mr. Keshner was presented with a certifi-

cate honoring his participation during a June 3rd vis-

it by Dr. John C. Morris.

marks of the disease, abnormal amounts of amyloid

proteins forming plaques and tau proteins forming

tangles, were found in the brain.

Since then, research has determined that AD may

cause changes in the brain a decade or more before

symptoms appear and that symptoms do not always

directly relate to abnormal changes in the brain

caused by AD. For example, some older people are

found to have abnormal levels of amyloid plaques in

the brain at autopsy yet never showed signs of de-

mentia during life. It also appears that amyloid de-

posits begin early in the disease process but that

tangle formation and loss of neurons occur later and

may accelerate just before clinical symptoms ap-

pear. The guidelines are flexible to allow for chang-

es that could come from emerging technologies and

advances in understanding of biomarkers and the

disease process itself.

--Alzheimer's Disease Education and Referral

Center, a service of the National Institute on Aging

Participants Meeting Recap …...………... 2

Questions from Participants…...………… 2

Awards, Honors, and Grants……............. 3

Farewells and Additions …………............ 4

2011 Summer Scholars ………………… 4

Seay Lecture Save the Date…………….. 4

Gratitude Shared with Individual Donor... 5

Art Program for People with Dementia … 5

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The Memory and Aging Project (MAP) of the Knight ADRC hosted

the 2011 Participants’ Meeting on June 11 at the Westport Double-

tree Hotel. The event provided Knight ADRC faculty and staff a

wonderful opportunity to visit with and thank over 450 study partici-

pants. Guests enjoyed a delicious ca-

tered breakfast and presentations on a

variety of research areas including

―Using Skin Cells to Understand the

Brain‖ by Celeste Karch, PhD; ―Sleep

and Alzheimer’s Disease: Is there a

Connection?‖ by Anne Fagan, PhD;

―Why is the Amyloid-beta Drain

Clogged in Alzheimer’s Disease?’ by

Randall Bateman, MD; ―What’s Emo-

tion Got to Do with It?‖ by Randall

Larsen, PhD; and a clinical trial update

by B. Joy Snider, MD, PhD. Modera-

tion and a State of the Knight ADRC

address were provided by John C.

Morris, MD, and the event concluded with a question and answer

session. The meeting was the largest MAP annual meeting yet!

Participants’ Meeting Invigorates Crowd, Highlights Research

After the presentations, the panel of speakers an-

swered questions from the audience. Select ques-

tions that were not addressed at the event will be

published in this and future newsletters.

What are the primary funding sources for all

the trials and studies we heard about today?

Most of the funding comes from the federal govern-

ment, specifically from the National Institute on Aging

(NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health

(NIH). NIH funds support long-term studies such as

the annual assessments at the Memory and Aging

Project, biomarker and imaging studies and other

projects of the Knight ADRC. As you may have

heard, the recession and tightening of the federal

budget have made it challenging to secure NIH fund-

ing. Fortunately, a number of individuals have donat-

ed funds to support the ADRC both in the short and

long-term. Finally, pharmaceutical companies pro-

vide funding for testing of specific new medications

through clinical drug trials. You can help by letting your

senators and congressmen know that they must support

Alzheimer’s research. -B. Joy Snider, MD, PhD

Are beta amyloid cells unique to the brain?

The amyloid-beta protein is made by neurons in the brain

but other cells throughout the body make it, too. For rea-

sons we still do not fully understand, amyloid-beta accumu-

lates as ―plaques‖ specifically in the brain in Alzheimer’s

disease (AD). It also accumulates in blood vessels in the

brain (a condition called cerebral amyloid angiopathy, or

CAA) in AD, but not all people with AD exhibit CAA. Con-

versely, some people get CAA without getting amyloid

plaques and tangles characteristic of AD. Many labs

throughout the world are investigating how amyloid-beta is

normally made and transported out of the brain. If plaques

build up in AD because there is a problem with this

transport, then fixing this problem may be a potential thera-

py for AD. – Anne Fagan, PhD

Questions From Our Participants

ADRC Executive Director Virginia Buckles, PhD

visits with former African American Advisory

Board Chair and current member, Norman Seay.

Clinicians Nupur Ghoshal, MD, PhD and Monique

Williams, MD, MSCI.

Randall Bateman, MD answers

questions from the podium.

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Awards and Honors

Beau Ances, MD, PhD - recipient of the 2011 Kopolow Award. The award recognizes contributions to the care of older adults, including research that addresses aging is-sues. Randall Bateman, MD has been elected an active mem-ber in the American Neurological Association. Tammie Benzinger, MD, PhD received the 7th Annual Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award from the Washington University Postdoctoral Society. Congratulations to Virginia Buckles, PhD, and her vol-leyball team, the Arch Rivals, upon winning the Gold Med-al match at the US Senior Olympics in Houston, Texas in June. Mary Coats, BS, CS, GCNS, MS, RN was selected as a finalist in St. Louis Magazine’s 2011 Excellence in Nursing Award Competition representing the neurology discipline. David M. Holtzman, MD will be a member of the Advisory council of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) at the NIH from 2011-2015. Terri Hosto, MSW, LCSW - co-winner of the 2011 Fried-man Award. The award honors a nonphysician who has made outstanding contributions to patient-oriented care of older adults, including through educational activities or research. A list recently released by the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research compiled National Institutes of Health funding amounts awarded to principal investigators across all disciplines. In 2010, John C. Morris, MD was ranked #116 out of nearly 35,000 investigators. Dr. Morris ranked #1 in awarded funding among all ADC/ADRC di-rectors. John C. Morris, MD was recently profiled at Thomson Reuters ScienceWatch

® following the publication of the

article "APOE Predicts Amyloid-Beta but Not Tau Alz-heimer Pathology in Cognitively Normal Aging” (Ann. Neurol. 67[1]: 122-31, January 2010 as a featured Fast-Breaking Paper in the field of Neuroscience & Behavior. The paper is one of the most-cited papers in the discipline published during the past two years. In addition, in Sci-enceWatch® Essential Science Indicators, Dr. Morris ranks #23 of 3679 researchers who comprise the top 1% in the field of Neuroscience and Behavior. Community Outreach Coordinator Myrtis Spencer was installed as President of Continental Societies Incorpo-rated, St. Louis Chapter, which is a prestigious non-profit international public service organization dedicated to the socioeconomic and cultural welfare of underprivileged children and youth. Consuelo Hopkins Wilkins, MD was honored by the St. Louis American Foundation as one of 20 outstanding Afri-

can-American professionals under 40. The Salute to Young Leaders Award honored St. Louis’s next genera-tion of leaders representing diverse professions in the private, public and non-profit sectors. Monique Williams, MD, MSCI was appointed to a three-year term as a member of the Task Force for Minority Issues in Gerontology of the Gerontological Society of America.

Grant Awards

Brian D. Carpenter, PhD received a grant from the Fridolin Charitable Trust to develop and evaluate a web-based intervention to improve knowledge within families about older parents’ care preferences, and enhance com-munication skills so families can collaborate effectively on older parent care. Marc Diamond, MD received a $250,000/2 year grant from NIH/NINDS for the project ―Developing a mouse retinal model of neurodegenerative disease.‖ Raphael Kopan, PhD received a $260,481 grant award from the NIH to study ―Biochemical and Genetic Analysis of Notch Signaling.‖ Yvette Sheline, MD has been awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health for her study ―Citalopram Degreases Amyloid-B Synthesis in Human CSF.‖ The grant totals $418,000 through June 2013. Gregory Zipfel, MD has been awarded funding for two grants: McDonnell Center for Systems Neuroscience Pilot Grant for ―The role of cerebral amyloid angiopathy in is-chemic brain injury and cognitive dysfunction,‖ $40,000 through 2013; and NINDS ―The role of Aβ species in vas-cular smooth muscle cell and cerebral arteriole dysfunc-tion,‖ $218,750 through 2016.

Faculty Promotions

Congratulations are extended to the following Knight

ADRC colleagues following their recent promotions:

Randy Bateman, MD, on his promotion from Assis-

tant Professor to Associate Professor of Neurology,

Virginia Buckles, PhD, for promotion from Research

Associate Professor to Research Professor of Neu-

rology,

Anne Fagan, PhD, for promotion from Research As-

sociate Professor to Research Professor of Neurolo-

gy,

Nupur Ghoshal, MD, PhD, on her promotion from

Instructor to Assistant Professor of Neurology,

Denise Head, MD, promoted from Assistant Profes-

sor to Associate Professor of Psychology,

Krista Moulder, PhD, for promotion from Senior Sci-

entist to Research Assistant Professor of Neurology.

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New Team Members

Siekyeong Kim, MD, PhD, visiting foreign scholar. Dr. Kim is an assistant professor in the Department of Neu-ropsychiatry, Chungbuk National University College of Medicine and CBNU Hospital, Cheongju, Korea. Eric Musiek, MD, PhD, ADRC fellow. Dr. Musiek com-pleted medical school at Vanderbilt School of Medicine, and a neurology residency at the University of Pennsyl-vania. Dr. Musiek’s research efforts focus on the role of oxidative stress and circadian function in neurodegener-ative diseases, as well as identifying new biochemical and imaging biomarkers for the diagnosis of AD. Jennifer Wesselman-Williams, FNP-BC, MSN, RN, is a Nurse Clinician who is returning to research after previ-ously working as family nurse practitioner.

Student Scholars Invest Summer

Researching, Learning

The Friedman Center for Aging is pleased to

host 12 students in the 2011 Summer Research

Experience in Aging program. Students com-

plete a research project under the guidance of a

Washington University Center for Aging faculty

mentor, and the students attend weekly semi-

nars, tours, laboratory activities, an ethics re-

treat, and a poster session. The 2011 cohort

includes: Kassel Galaty, Ohio Wesleyan Uni-

versity; Brittany Haus, Missouri State Universi-

ty; Gila Hoffman, Cornell University; Jessica

Nichols, Aurora University; Kim O’Leary, Brad-

ley University; Samantha Renker, University of

Tulsa; Jessica Saw, Oberlin College; Sunny

Vig, Washington University; Karen Obermann,

St. Louis College of Pharmacy; and Taylor Re-

al, University of Missouri – Columbia. Also par-

ticipating in the program are Braden Juengel

and Marina Mityul, medical students at WUSM.

AAAB Member Honored

Congratulations are extended to ADRC African

American Advisory Board member Gwendolyn

Packnett, who was honored in June with the

2011 Legacy Award by the Gateway Metropoli-

tan Section of the National Council of Negro

Women, Inc.

Fond Farewells

Halley Hindman completed her year-long research assis-tantship studying exercise and cognition and will begin medical school at Touro University College of Osteopathic Medicine in August. Pamela Jackson, BSN, MA left the ADRC after 8 years of service as a nurse clinician. Yong Soo Shim, MD, PhD spent two years characterizing the pathological correlates of cerebral white matter hy-perintensities in aging and dementia, and returned to his appointment at The Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine in March. Rawan Tarawneh, MD completed a 2-year fellowship with the ADRC and will be returning to Jordan. Dr. Ta-rawneh’s research contributions include investigations into future neuroprotective therapies for neurodegenera-tive disorders, and stroke and biomarkers in translational research of Alzheimer's disease.

Save the Date

The 6th Annual Norman R. Seay Lecture is sched-

uled for Tuesday, October 4, 2011, at 4:00pm in

the Farrell Learning and

Teaching Center. Patrick

A. Griffith, MD, FAAN,

Chief, Division of Neurolo-

gy, Professor, Clinical

Medicine, Morehouse

School of Medicine will

present ―Are African

Americans Part of the Alz-

heimer’s Disease Story?‖

Everyone is welcome,

and more details may be obtained by contacting

Myrtis Spencer, Community Outreach Coordinator,

at spencerm@wustl.edu or 314-286-0930.

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Participant Shares Appreciation For Anonymous Donor

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrap-ping a present and not giving it.” – William Arthur Ward In late 2010 the Knight ADRC learned that, due to low funds at the National Institute on Aging, the Adult Chil-dren Study (ACS) 5-year funding award would not be renewed in that grant cycle. A revised application for 2011 has been submitted, and we remain optimistic that funding will be restored in 2012. Fortunately, the ACS received a generous $1 million dollar gift from a new do-nor that allows the ACS to remain operational and fully active as it continues to collect valuable information. An ACS participant sent a letter to the Memory and Ag-ing Project requesting it be forwarded to the anonymous donor. Because it captures the thoughts and gratitude so many of our participants expressed, with permission, we wish to share portions of the letter in the Horizon’s Newsletter: Dear ―Individual Donor‖: Both my parents had Alzheimer’s disease. My mother was part of the Memory and Aging Project until her death in 1993, my dad being her ―collateral source.‖ My dad became a subject of MAP when he himself developed memory problems. I became his collateral source until his death in 2001. I am now a participant in the Adult Children Study. Early on, my caring mother felt so help-less in wanting to lift the burden she felt she was inflict-ing on the family, especially my father. My gentle father later became combative at times. After my dad’s death, it seemed very right to become a participant in the Adult Children Study. If I had AD, or if I didn’t, I wanted the research to which I contributed to lead to advances in detection and hopefully a cure for the disease. It was disappointing to hear in January that the National Institute on Aging did not have funds to support the re-newal of the Adult Children Study. In fact, at the time I wrote Dr. Morris, offering to do any study-even the ―dreaded spinal tap‖-without reimbursement. At the same time, I knew that a great deal of monetary assis-tance was needed to pay researchers and to support the processes they carry out. Then came Dr. Morris’ exciting letter of March 15. He wrote, ―Our ability to continue these assessments has been substantially bolstered by extremely generous and most appreciated support from an individual donor.‖ Hurrah! Even since receiving that letter, I have been thinking of you gratefully and prayerfully, ―Individual Do-nor.‖ I finally have the opportunity to put my feelings in writing. I want you to know how grateful one of the par-ticipants in the study is for allowing the research to con-tinue. Sincerely, Sister Barbara Schlatter, C.PP.S.

Thank you to everyone who attended the 11th Annual Friedman

Conference in May. The event included presentations by Wash-

ington University School of Medicine faculty (shown from left

to right): John C. Morris, MD, moderator; Shin-ichiro Imai,

MD, PhD, “Toward Productive Aging: SIRT1, Systemic NAD

Biosynthesis and NAD World”; Monique M. Williams, MD,

MSCI, “State of the Nation: Disparities and Aging”; Mrs. Do-

rismae Friedman, widow of conference namesake Harvey

Friedman; Susy Stark, PhD, OTR/L, “Falls in the Elderly”;

and Paul J. Shaw, PhD, “The Role of Sleep in Plasticity in the

Aging Fly.”

Art Appreciation Program Seeks Participants with Memory Loss

On Monday, November 7, 2011 from 1:30pm – 3:30pm the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University will host a pilot program called Kemper Art Reaches Everyone (KARE) for 10 Memory and Aging Project participants with early to

moderate Alzhei-mer’s disease and their care partners. Participants will en-gage with three to five pieces of art in the museum’s gal-leries, and then en-joy refreshments while creating a

hands-on project inspired by the encounter. Working with Lynn Hamilton, President of Maturity and Its Muse, a not-for-profit with a mission to promote posi-tive productive aging through the arts, the Kemper Art Museum plans to grow KARE into a monthly series benefiting the region. Participation in this new pro-gram is limited to ten pairs. If you would like to learn more or reserve your space, please contact Lynn Hamilton at lynnfhamilton@sbcglobal.net or 314-991-3322.

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HORIZONS is the newsletter of the Charles F. and Jo-

anne Knight Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center

(Knight ADRC) — a research program in the Depart-

ment of Neurology, Washington University School of

Medicine, funded by grants from the National Institute on

Aging and private donations. The ADRC supports and

promotes interdisciplinary research on Alzheimer’s Dis-

ease. The Memory & Aging Project (MAP) — the clinical

research office of the ADRC — provides expert clinical

assessments of cognitive functioning in normal aging

and dementia.

John C. Morris, MD, Director, ADRC; Director, MAP; Administration Core and Clinical Core Leader; Education Core/Rural Satellite Interim Leader Alison Goate, DPhil, Associate Director, ADRC; Genetics Core Leader

Eugene M. Johnson, PhD, Associate Director, ADRC

David M. Holtzman, MD, Associate Director, ADRC

Virginia Buckles, PhD, Executive Director, ADRC

Krista Moulder, PhD, Associate Executive Director, ADRC

Martha Storandt, PhD, Psychometric Leader

Nigel J. Cairns, PhD, FRCPath, Neuropathology Core Leader

Tammie Benzinger, MD, PhD, Imaging Core Leader

Chengjie Xiong, PhD, Data Management and Biostatistics Core Leader

Monique Williams, MD, MSCI, African American Satel-lite Leader

Anne Fagan, PhD, Biomarker Core Leader

4488 Forest Park Avenue Suite 130 St. Louis, MO 63108 (314) 286-2683; Fax 286-2763 www.alzheimer.wustl.edu

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