Living with Dementia > Research

Growing public awareness and the number and quality of Association grant applications reflect the increasing importance of Alzheimer’s disease and the growing stature of Alzheimer research. The sense of urgency arising from the impending public health crisis has attracted some of the best minds in science to the effort to unravel Alzheimer's mysteries. Expanding interest in dementia has nurtured a worldwide initiative exploring a wide array of disease mechanisms and approaches to treatment. Following is a summary of current developments in Alzheimer’s research, written for non-specialists.

Most scientists agree that the critical biological events leading to the behavioral and clinical problems of Alzheimer’s center around loss of communication among certain nerve cells and eventual destruction of these cells. Divergent perspectives on the exact cause of this destruction have fostered different theories about what initiates the process and how best to intervene.