comprehensive -WSS

comprehensive

author：focus 2025-09-02 22:06:23 - browse：49283

Alzheimer’s disease has killed at least three women in Astrida Schaeffer’s family over two generations, leaving her feeling helpless and bereft.

The first was her Polish-born maternal grandmother, who began showing symptoms when Schaeffer started college in 1981 and died seven years later. Then came her mother, a onetime Fulbright Scholar and high school language teacher who had been fluent in five languages but lost the ability to speak. She died in 2019. Last year, the disease killed Schaeffer’s mother’s sister, a former lab technician for Johnson & Johnson.

Schaeffer, a 59-year-old costume historian in North Berwick, Maine, has no symptoms of Alzheimer’s. But in 2021 her family history led her to apply to join a clinical trial testing a drug on people at risk for developing them. To participate, volunteers couldn’t have cognitive impairment. But they needed to test positive for a biomarker that put them at higher risk for mental decline ― deposits of a sticky toxic protein in the brain called beta-amyloid that is a hallmark of the disease.

Get unlimited access to award-winning journalism and exclusive events.

Subscribe Log In

Previous article： In age of alternative facts, a scholarly course on calling out crap
Next article： With fresh data, a dynamic duo powers Eli Lilly to new heights

entertainment

WSS

Tennessee woman gets emergency hysterectomy after doctors deny early abortion care

How corporate America is slashing DEI workers amid backlash to diversity programs

What to know about a major upcoming Wegovy heart health study

Why are Kaiser Permanente staff considering a strike?

Biotech stock slump in 2023: awaiting the turnaround

Emergency workers more likely to restrain Black patients: study

hotspot

comprehensive

focus

United colonoscopy coverage change 'may cost lives,' doctors say

Experts study whether long Covid risk adds up with each reinfection

How one medical school became remarkably diverse

Drug for rare kidney disease narrowly misses mark in clinical trial

In age of alternative facts, a scholarly course on calling out crap

Readout LOUD podcast: possible new ALS drug, artificial wombs

As demand for Covid shots wanes, Moderna seeks its next success

Second xenotransplant done with gene

What does generative AI mean for health care? We asked experts

Experts study whether long Covid risk adds up with each reinfection

entertainment

North Korean leader's powerful sister says warplanes repelled US spy plane

Why are Kaiser Permanente staff considering a strike?

Senators: Long

Submersible on Titanic tour reported missing off Newfoundland with 5 people aboard

With fresh data, a dynamic duo powers Eli Lilly to new heights

Tennessee woman gets emergency hysterectomy after doctors deny early abortion care

entertainment

entertainment

leisure time

hotspot