UC San Diego will soon take part in what's being called the largest brain imaging study on Alzheimer's disease ever conducted. KPBS Reporter Kenny Goldberg has more.
The international study will employ MRIs and PET scans to more precisely measure how Alzheimer's disease affects the brain. Researchers will recruit some 800 volunteers between the ages of 55 and 90 for the study.
Scientists hope to use the information to help develop better therapies to treat Alzheimer's patients.
UCSD's Dr. Leon Thal is one of the study's national coordinators.
Thal: We don't want to just develop drugs to improve symptoms, we want to develop drugs that will alter the rate of decline, slow it down, perhaps even halt it.
It's projected within 50 years, some 13-million Americans may suffer from Alzheimer's disease. Kenny Goldberg, KPBS News.
