SCF Recommends
Many current events, publications, movies, websites and more deserve our attention as we contemplate our aging, and as we age. The SCF gives you a heads-up on some of these on this web page that is frequently updated.
“The Future of Alzheimer's: Breakthroughs and Challenges”
Webcast of a hearing before the Aging Committee of the U.S. Senate, May 14, 2008.
Witnesses:
- The Honorable Sandra Day O'Connor, Former Supreme Court Justice, Member of the Alzheimer's Study Group, Washington, DC
- The Honorable Newt Gingrich, Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Member of the Alzheimer's Study Group, Washington, DC
- Charles Jackson, Alzheimer's patient, Albany, Oregon
- Suzanne Carabone, Alzheimer's patient caregiver, Silver Spring, MD
- Rudi Tanzi, Ph.D., Director of Genetics and Aging Research Unit, Massachusetts General Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases; Professor of Neurology, Harvard University, Hull, MA.
The webcast is available at here. A transcript will be forthcoming.
The hearing produced moving testimony about Alzheimer’s by former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, whose husband has the disease, and others, together with an encouraging report by Rudi Tanzi, Ph.D., a Harvard neurology professor who is a co-discoverer of the first Alzheimer’s gene. Tanzi spoke of hope for the future as scientists identify the genes that cause the disease and develop drugs to prevent it. Experts estimate that, without preventive measures, one in eight in America’s boomer generation will develop Alzheimer’s.
