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Discovery of SORL1 gene for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease

Institution:

Columbia University College Of Physicians and Surgeons

Researchers:

Richard Mayeux, MD, Gertrude H. Sergievsky Professor of Neurology, Psychiatry, and Epidemiology, Chair of the Department of Neurology, and co-director of the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain, Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons

Impact:

Mayeux led an international team of researchers that discovered a second gene (after ApoE4) implicated in late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Certain variants of the gene, they discovered, interfere with normal function of SORL1, leading to increased production of toxic amyloid beta protein in the brain. His Alzheimer’s disease research earned him the Potamkin Award from the American Academy of Neurology (2007), the John M. Sterns Lifetime Achievement Award in Medicine from the New York Academy of Medicine (2008), and

a Henry Wisniewski Lifetime Achievement Award in Alzheimer’s Disease Research (2009).

Timeline:

2007

Topics

AgingBasic ScienceCancerCardiovascularClinical ResearchDiagnosticsDrug DevelopmentFeaturedGeneticsImmune SystemInfectious DiseaseMedical DeviceMental HealthNeurodegenerativeNobel PrizePediatricsPublic HealthRespiratorySurgical AdvancementTechnologyTreatment AdvancesVaccines

Schools

Albany Medical CollegeAlbert Einstein College of MedicineCity University of New York School of MedicineColumbia University College Of Physicians and SurgeonsHofstra Northwell School of Medicine at Hofstra UniversityIcahn School of Medicine at Mount SinaiJacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, the University at BuffaloNew York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic MedicineNew York Medical CollegeNew York University School of MedicineSchool of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Rochester Medical CenterStony Brook University School of MedicineSUNY Downstate Medical CenterSUNY Upstate Medical UniversityTouro College of Osteopathic MedicineWeill Cornell MedicineWeill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian