Alzheimer's Disease

Thanks to Ellie for this one:

Although this video is about 2 years old now, the issue of geriatric disease and Alzheimer's is very current. Petsko stresses the urgency of finding cures, or at least treatments to diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's because of the growing senior population. He provides a simplified way for people to understand some of the research and development on the subject. He also discusses some of the biggest risk factors for these diseases and ways to try and decrease one's risk for contracting them.

This issue is extremely important to me because my Grandpa has Alzheimer's. He does everything he can to stay sharp, but his memory is going fast, and there seems to be no hope in sight. But new ideas are sprouting up in the medical community about how to detect and perhaps even prevent Alzheimer's.
This article outlines a new marker for diagnosing Alzheimer's, a compound called AV-45 that can be detected in PET scans of the brain.

http://www.medcitynews.com/2010/11/alzheimers-imaging-agent-tops-cleveland-clinics-2011-medical-innovations-list/

I hope that in the near future, more advances will be made in the prevention and treatment of the disease.