A Way Forward is a four-part series dedicated to sharing these challenges with the CCAD community, along with ways to help address them and contribute to their resolution.

We believe diversity in ideas leads to better medical research, and to achieve this, it is important to identify and address individual, community and institutional challenges scientists face that hold us back as a community. The third piece is written by Jacqueline Helpern. To read her article click on the button below.

I started my career as a basic neuroscientist studying brain circuit mechanisms related to the sense of smell and then memory. While I was studying on basic research during my PhD, my grandmother started to show symptoms of AD. Even though I got my postdoc training in memory research, I again could not do anything for my grandmother – as no cure existed at that time.

Looking back at the path that led me to start my own research group, I see the Charleston Conference on Alzheimer’s disease as certainly one of the significant early steps. The goal of my proposal, for which I was generously recognized with a New Vision Award, was to characterize peripheral regulation of synaptic plasticity in the context of aging and Alzheimer’s-associated genetic backgrounds, including APOE4.

A Way Forward is a four-part series dedicated to sharing these challenges with the CCAD community, along with ways to help address them and contribute to their resolution.

We believe diversity in ideas leads to better medical research, and to achieve this, it is important to identify and address individual, community and institutional challenges scientists face that hold us back as a community. The Second piece is written by CCAD Alumni Georgia Hodes and edited by Jacqueline Helpern. To read her article click on the button below.