Fast Breaking Comment by Dennis Selkoe

ADDITION OF DATA (August 13, 2007):
A podcast from Dennis Selkoe has been added to this interview. Two formats available: mp3 | wma

Dennis Selkoe answers a few questions about this month's fast breaking paper in the field of Neuroscience & Behavior.

From •>>August 2003

Field: Neuroscience & Behavior
Article Title: "Medicine - The amyloid hypothesis of Alzheimer's disease: Progress and problems on the road to therapeutics"
Authors: Hardy, J;Selkoe, DJ
Journal: SCIENCE
Volume: 297
Page: 353-356
Year: JUL 19 2002
* Harvard Univ, Brigham & Womens Hosp, Sch Med, Ctr Neurol Dis, Boston, MA 02115 USA.
* Harvard Univ, Brigham & Womens Hosp, Sch Med, Ctr Neurol Dis, Boston, MA 02115 USA.
* NIA, Neurogenet Lab, Bethesda, MD 20892 USA.

Why do you think your paper is highly cited?

Primarily because the fundamental cause and biological mechanism of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are of great interest and concern to many scientists in diverse biological disciplines. Also, the amyloid hypothesis of AD has been quite controversial.

Does it describe a new discovery or a new methodology that's useful to others?

No, it reviews and updates the most prominent theory about a common and devastating human disease and points the way to therapeutic opportunities.

Could you summarize the significance of your paper in layman's terms?

The paper describes a specific explanation of the cause, mechanism, and eventual treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

How did you become involved in this research?

I was interested in the neuronal cytoskeleton as a post-doc and began experiments on first the neurofibrillary tangles and then the amyloid plaques of AD.

Dennis J. Selkoe, M.D.
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Center for Neurologic Diseases
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA, USA

Read an interview with D ennis Selkoe discussing the special topic of Alzheimer's Disease in ESI Special Topics.

ESI Special Topics, August 2003
Citing URL - http://www.esi-topics.com/fbp/2003/august03-DennisSelkoe.html