Alzheimer’s disease (AD) remains the most common form of dementia, particularly the late-onset version which typically develops in patients aged over 65. Although there is believed to be a strong genetic basis to the disease, the only gene previously identified as a susceptibility factor in all version of the disease was APOE, coding for Apolipoprotein E. In addition, genes for Amyloid precursor protein (APP), Presenilin 1 (PSEN1) and Presenilin 2 (PSEN2) have been noted as factors in the less common early-onset form of AD, which has a strong pattern of familial inheritance. Other attempts to find genes influencing the more common late onset form of AD have been ‘under-powered’, i.e. have involved insufficient individuals (≤1,100) to reveal any further statistically-significant correlations.
In October 2009, however, two independent studies published “back-to-back” in the journal Nature Genetics identified a number of other genes in which Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) seem to be associated with development of late-onset AD. Read More…


At the risk of sounding like a Carlsberg advert, “The Journal of the Left-handed Biochemist doesn’t do award ceremonies, but if we did…” – what would be the winner of “Best Science programme” during the last 12 months?
Recognising that neuroscience is an area of research that fascinates the public and where discoveries are frequently picked up by the general press, Weisberg et al generated four explanatory statements for each of 18 different psychological phenoma. In each case the four statements represented:
A tweet this morning from @





