Nice prize for Alzheimer’s work, shame about the lack of a cure

Alfred Pasieka/Science Photo Library

By Jacqui Wise

Alzheimer’s disease is back in the headlines with the announcement that the annual €1 million Brain prize has gone to four neuroscientists researching the genetic and molecular basis of the illness.

This is recognition of great basic science. John Hardy at University College London (UCL) was the first to propose that Alzheimer’s disease was initiated by the build-up of beta amyloid, a protein that can coagulate into plaques that kill brain cells. Michel Goedert at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, was instrumental in the discovery of …