Alzheimer's Disease
Alzheimer's Disease is a chronic, degenerative condition that affects the cerebral cortex causing brain atropy and neural cell loss. Alzheimer's falls under a broad category of brain diseases known as Dementia, which is a general term for a decline of mental ability severe enough to interfere with daily life. Alzheimer’s Disease is the most common form of dementia accounting for about 60 to 80 percent of dementia cases. Alzheimer's is a disease that causes problems with memory, thinking, and behavior. It is most common in elderly people (65 and up) however it is possible to occur at a younger age (40 - 50). This is known as younger-onset.
The disease is not something that just appears. It is a progressive disease and gets worse over time. The causes for this disease are not yet clear but when researchers looked at brain tissue from an Alzheimer’s patient, they found two abnormalities that are signs for this disease. One sign are plaques. There is a protein called beta-amyloids that cluster up and interfere with the cell to cell communication. The other sign is the threads of protein tau that are twisted up and tangled, hence the name. The proteins normally function as internal support and as a transport system for nutrients and essential materials to be carried between neurons. The worse part is, there is no known cure just yet for this disease.
Grid-Computing
Grid computing is a unique and innovative way to conduct studies that focus on one problem. This works by splitting up the processing power into multiple computers. A software is developed that people can download and that software allows the computer to run an algorithm will go through the data. It makes the most cost-effective use of a given amount of resources especially if there is a large amount of computers that are part of the network. It can solve problems that cannot be done without an enormous amount of computing power. Lastly, it opens up a world where resources of many computers can be united towards a common objective, in our case it will be towards Alzheimer’s Disease.
This grid-computing project is working hand-in-hand with the research done at UCLA. They were able to solve the primary structure of an amyloid. With this project we will be using the primary sequence to predict which parts of the protein will most likely form the amyloids. If we are able to figure out the formation the plaques, then we may be able to devise a way to block that formation and finally have a way to fight Alzheimer's. If you would like to join the research follow this link: http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/
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Beta-amyloid clump, also known as plaques.
Comparison between a healthy brain(left) and one that has been degraded by Alzheimer’s (right)
Here is a short video with an overview of Alzheimer’s Disease.
