Why has there been so little progress on Alzheimer's disease?
freakonomics.com
Why has there been so little progress on Alzheimer's disease?
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Re: Why has there been so little progress on Alzheimer's disease?
#2The major problem has been lock-in of the Abeta 42 peptide fragment as the cause. This monomaniacal focus was rewarded by grant awards to team players.
Karl Herrup has a terrific book on the topic How Not to Study a Disease — The Story of Alzheimer’s from MIT Press (2021, ISBN 9780262045902). He did not win many friends but I think he is right.
The consensus now is that many factors contribute to the heterogeneous diseases we now call Alzheimer’s.
Re: Why has there been so little progress on Alzheimer's disease?
#3"One possibility: a leading hypothesis pursued by researchers (and funders) was built on science that now appears to be fraudulent."
Possibly the most likely possibility?
Re: Why has there been so little progress on Alzheimer's disease?
#4The major problem has been lock-in of the Abeta 42 peptide fragment as the cause. This monomaniacal focus was rewarded by grant awards to team players. Karl Herrup has a terrific book on the topic How Not to Study a Disease — The Story of Alzheimer’s from MIT Press (2021, ISBN 9780262045902). He did not win many friends but I think he is right. The consensus now is that many factors contribute to the heterogeneous di…
The article (or I guess more accurately "podcast transcription") seems to be saying that this lock-in essentially happened due to fraud, since some of the data was intentionally doctored to get the intended result. One of the guests seems to be an author of a different book about this (with the other guest being the scientist who apparently uncovered this). I can't personally attest to the accuracy of anything they said, but they're at least alleging that it was a lot less benign than it sounds like you're describing.
Re: Why has there been so little progress on Alzheimer's disease?
#5Its done substantially better than more common diseases like ME/CFS which very few have even heard of let alone know the symptoms of and receives almost no funding at all. Alzheimer's received a further $100 million of NIH funding earlier this year (https://www.alz.org/news/2026/100-million-dollar-alzheimers-...). That is 6 times the total funding for ME/CFS federally which is currently just 15 million and planned to decline.
The research went awry in Alziemer's due to fraud but its being funded at a reasonable level, a level many with Long Covid or ME/CFS or Fibromylgia would be very happy to see but doubt will ever happen. Funding of diseases is not "fair", it isn't based on number of sufferers * quality life years lost and we should be spending more on medical research generally. Alzeimers is one of the better funded diseases in the world.
Re: Why has there been so little progress on Alzheimer's disease?
#6"One possibility: a leading hypothesis pursued by researchers (and funders) was built on science that now appears to be fraudulent." Possibly the most likely possibility?
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Re: Why has there been so little progress on Alzheimer's disease?
#7Its done substantially better than more common diseases like ME/CFS which very few have even heard of let alone know the symptoms of and receives almost no funding at all. Alzheimer's received a further $100 million of NIH funding earlier this year ( https://www.alz.org/news/2026/100-million-dollar-alzheimers-... ). That is 6 times the total funding for ME/CFS federally which is currently just 15 million and planned…
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Re: Why has there been so little progress on Alzheimer's disease?
#8The major problem has been lock-in of the Abeta 42 peptide fragment as the cause. This monomaniacal focus was rewarded by grant awards to team players. Karl Herrup has a terrific book on the topic How Not to Study a Disease — The Story of Alzheimer’s from MIT Press (2021, ISBN 9780262045902). He did not win many friends but I think he is right. The consensus now is that many factors contribute to the heterogeneous di…
The article (or I guess more accurately "podcast transcription") seems to be saying that this lock-in essentially happened due to fraud, since some of the data was intentionally doctored to get the intended result. One of the guests seems to be an author of a different book about this (with the other guest being the scientist who apparently uncovered this). I can't personally attest to the accuracy of anything they s…
The focus is definitely on scientific fraud, but what makes the fraud so easy in this case is singing and selling the same song that the big teams are singing and selling. You can fly under the radar AND get funded, and if you are “lucky” become an ultra big shot like Masliah at NIA.
Re: Why has there been so little progress on Alzheimer's disease?
#9'Science progresses one funeral at a time...' It is often the case that an entire field is led by a few influential people and until they leave others can't get the air they need to make real progress.
Re: Why has there been so little progress on Alzheimer's disease?
#10It is a "There is No Antimemetics Division" kind of scenario. They discover the cure and then keep forgetting it.