Dr. Sultan Darvesh (MD’88, PGM’93) and his team of researchers have made a breakthrough that could change the way medical professionals diagnose Alzheimer’s Disease.

The team has discovered a molecule that adheres to the proteins in the brain that are responsible for the disease. Thanks to this discovery, future Alzheimer’s diagnoses could take place while patients are still living, a process that is currently not possible.

Early diagnosis could have a major impact on the lives of Alzheimer’s patients who need to plan for themselves and their families.

Long road to Alzheimer’s drug

The team, based at the Maritime Brain Tissue Bank, is in the early stages of the journey toward proving their discovery. This will include complex animal and clinical trials.

For now, Darvesh and his team are celebrating the hard work that went into their milestone achievement.

“We could have given up many, many years ago, for a wide variety of reasons,” he says. “And, I’m glad that we didn’t.”

Read more in “Halifax researchers hit ‘huge milestone’ in trying to detect Alzheimer’s disease,” on globalnews.ca.

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