Latinas In STEM Lead The Way In The Fight Against Alzheimer's Disease
Jose MoreyForbes Councils Member
Forbes Technology CouncilCOUNCIL POST| Paid Program
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José Morey
José Morey, M.D. is considered the first intergalactic doctor. He is a leader in exponential technology innovation. @DrMorey1
It was in 1906 that Dr. Alois Alzheimer first identified abnormalities in cerebral parenchyma of a patient that had a novel behavioral disease process. Symptomatology included but was not limited to loss of memory, difficulty with speech and alterations in behavior. He found abnormally clustered cells and bundled fibers (amyloid plaques and tau tangles) in the brain tissue. Progress has been made over the last century, but the root causes, early diagnosis, treatment and prevention still elude our best and brightest scientists.
However, things are changing. Advances in biomarker research and early detection paradigms are being developed by a group of Latinas in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) from the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
The Multicultural Alzheimer’s Prevention Program (MAPP), directed by Dr. Yakeel T. Quiroz, is made up of a decorated group of multicultural scientists, many of whom are Latinas in STEM. Dr. Quiroz herself hails from Colombia and is currently an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.
The main focus of the MAPP is to identify some of the earliest biological and cognitive changes associated with the predisposition and risk to develop Alzheimer’s disease, with the ultimate goal of informing future clinical trials and early interventions.
To accomplish this goal, the team works with the world’s largest family with a single genetic mutation leading to Alzheimer’s disease before the age of 40. This is a very rare group, as more than 95% of the individuals with Alzheimer’s disease are older than 65. The family with the mutation resides in Antioquia, Colombia, and has approximately 6,000 members, including roughly 1,200 carriers of the mutation, known as the Paisa mutation.
In the past five years, and thanks to the support of the NIH Office of the Director and the National Institute on Aging (NIA), members of this family are coming to MAPP as part of the COLBOS (Colombia-Boston) Project, a longitudinal biomarker study.
Dr. Quiroz’s team and other research groups have provided evidence demonstrating that the amyloid-beta and tau pathology, which are the two pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer’s, can be observed in the brains of carriers several years before they experience memory impairment. They have also shown there is evidence of neural degeneration and functional disconnection in the brain measured by MRI many decades before symptom onset, as well as subtle memory decline starting close to a decade before cognitive impairment.
More recently, they also reported a unique individual from this family who did not develop cognitive impairment until her 70s, 30 years after her estimated age of clinical onset, and was found to be a carrier of a rare mutation in the APOE3 gene that may be protective against dementia. MAPP investigators are currently examining sex differences, sleep function, olfactory memory, early psychiatric symptoms and other markers of neural injury in this population, as well as the potential protective role of aerobic fitness and physical activity in the progression of the disease, among others.
In addition to investigating biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease in this unique family, MAPP supports research that aims to advance our understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias and prevention of cognitive decline in culturally diverse populations. As such, they collaborate with the Harvard Aging Brain Study to inform early detection of Alzheimer’s disease in cognitively normal older Latinos and spearhead the Boston Latino Aging Study (BLAST), an observational study that aims to understand memory and age-related disorders in older Latinos. These are of utmost importance because statistics show that Latinos and other ethnic groups in the U.S. are at greater risk for neurodegenerative diseases compared to Caucasians, yet little is known about the disease in these groups.
Further, MAPP is committed to training the next generation of scientists and to increasing diversity in science. One of the MAPP’s faculty, Dr. Edmarie Guzmán Vélez from Isabela, Puerto Rico, currently studies how physical activity and aerobic fitness may protect against Alzheimer’s disease and its mechanisms, in addition to looking for changes in brain connectivity and markers in biofluids (e.g., blood) that may help predict who is at risk for dementia. She was recently selected by El Mundo Spanish-language newspaper as one of Boston’s Latino's 30 Under 30 for her commitment to increase training opportunities for Puerto Ricans. She also speaks of potentially opening up a research institution focused on these topics within the island. She is a strong proponent of STEM as a means to uplift Puerto Rico and its people and sees this type of research as a part of the future through "Silicon Island," an idea first expressed by Forbes as a key to economic revitalization of Puerto Rico, following the devastation of Hurricane Maria in 2017. She and her husband, Dr. Héctor De Jesús Cortés, have recently launched a new STEM initiative that aims to promote the study of neuroscience by students in Puerto Rico from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds via their Sagrado-MIT Neuroscience Precollege Program. This program will allow studies at the Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in Puerto Rico and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
There is an old Spanish proverb that states, “No hay mal que dure cien años, ni cuerpo que lo aguante.” Literally, this translates to “No evil can last 100 years, nor body that can withstand it.” It expresses the fact that, in time, all ill must come to pass, one way or the other.
It has been just over 100 years since we first became aware of the ill of Alzheimer’s, and for the families affected by this disease, it feels like even longer. But thanks to a group of Latinas and others in STEM who will not stand for it anymore, I believe this ill will soon meet its end. And once it does, they will continue to inspire the future leaders in STEM to tackle the diseases of tomorrow.
José Morey, M.D., is considered the first Intergalactic Doctor, and is a leader in exponential technology innovation. Read Jose Morey's full executive profile here.…