Our genomes are peppered with DNA segments called retrotransposons that can move from place to place. When unleashed, some can kill nerves and promote inflammation — a discovery that may inspire treatments for neurodegeneration.

The 2025 Roger Ackerman Memorial Grant will fund Cheung’s research toward developing an RNA-based therapy for Alzheimer’s disease.

The work of Bess Frost, the Salame-Feraud Director of the Center for Alzheimer's Disease Research, and John Sedivy, director of the Center on the Biology of Aging, is highlighted in this Science article on retrotransposon research.

On September 23, Edward “Ted” Huey, M.D., joined some of the nation’s leading experts on Alzheimer’s disease at the National Institute on Aging to help set research priorities and to present his work. Huey’s main message: Memory loss is not the only sign of this common and devastating disease.

Alzheimer’s and related dementias also cause motor symptoms, like hand tremors or weakness. And there can be neuropsychiatric symptoms: angry outbursts, sudden apathy, even visual hallucinations. Loss of appetite and weight loss and trouble getting to sleep or staying asleep are also common signs of Alzheimer’s and other common forms of dementia, which afflict more than 6 million people in the United States – including 40% of people over the age of 85, according to federal statistics.

Edward “Ted” Huey, the director of the Memory and Aging Program at Butler Hospital and a professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University, has been named the associate director of Brown University's Center for Alzheimer's Disease Research.

Bess Frost has been appointed the Salame-Feraud Director of the Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research, a joint center between Brown University’s Robert J. and Nancy D. Carney Institute for Brain Science and the Division of Biology and Medicine.

At the Carney Institute for Brain Science, researchers are working to identify biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease that could open a new frontier of understanding and testing.

Carney professor and GLF Translational Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry Yu-Wen Alvin Huang received a 2024 Salomon Faculty Research Award for his project "Targeting the inflammatory CHI3L1/YKL-40 signaling to rescue cognitive dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease."

The neurotoxic effects of Agent Orange have important implications for the long-term brain health not only of veterans, but of all people exposed to biologically similar herbicides.

Researchers at the Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research are examining how risk factors and neuropsychiatric patterns may hold the key for early detection, and early intervention, in this fast-growing disease.

Host Seán Collins welcomes associate director of Brown University's Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research Dr. Steven Salloway, co-director of the McCance Center for Brain Health at Massachusetts General Hospital Dr. Rudy Tanzi and "The Forgetting: Alzheimer's: Portrait of an Epidemic" author David Shenk to discuss recent advances in Alzheimer's research and the possibility of early intervention and prevention. 

Ted Huey, director of the Memory and Aging Program, is excited about Brown’s potential to change the research landscape." Brown and Carney have really focused on helping to grow the program on research into Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias as a whole. They’re building bridges to help people facilitate new programs. And it’s so valuable."

Brown alumnus and award-winning journalist David Shenk (‘88) adjusted his mic at the lectern in Butler Hospital’s Ray Hall. The author of the book The Forgetting and creator of a podcast and film about Alzheimer’s disease, Shenk was visiting Providence to moderate a conversation in honor of World Alzheimer’s Day about how Rhode Island scientists are contributing to our understanding of the disease and development of new therapies.

In a new fluid biomarkers laboratory at Brown’s Carney Institute for Brain Science, researchers study blood samples for biological signals of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, expanding the possibilities of brain research.

Neuropsychiatric symptoms - such as anxiety and depression - afflict 85% of those with Alzheimer’s disease but our understanding of the causes of NPS is rather shallow. A new Carney/Butler Hospital grant aims to change this.

Tongyin Zheng, a postdoctoral scientist in the Fawzi lab, is this year’s recipient of the Judith and Jean Pape Adams Postdoctoral Award. Established in 2022 with a gift from the Judith and Jean Pape Adams Charitable Foundation, the award supports a postdoctoral researcher studying amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or other neurodegenerative diseases.

Five Brown University students have received graduate awards for the 2023/2024 academic year from the Robert J. and Nancy D. Carney Institute for Brain Science. Launched in 2001 thanks to the Dana Foundation and currently supported by several supporting entities, the Carney Graduate Awards in Brain Science recognize outstanding and productive Ph.D. candidates conducting brain science-related research in a Brown graduate program.

A multidisciplinary team of Carney-affiliated researchers have published research that has meaningful implications for patients suffering from Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH) and identifies new biomarkers in the neurodegenerative disease landscape.

A new imaging technique opens a path toward long-term study of blood vessels in aging brains and could help predict neurodegenerative diseases decades before symptoms begin.