ATRI's Michael Rafii, Professor of Neurology at the Keck School of Medicine and Medical Director of the Alzheimer’s Therapeutic Research Institute (ATRI) recently participated in a congressional briefing on the status of research on Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in people with Down syndrome (DS). Rafii spoke about the genetic basis for why people with DS develop AD and talked about some of the recent advances in biomarkers and therapeutic approaches.
Rafii also discussed collaborative efforts at ATRI on the Alzheimer’s Biomarker Consortium-Down syndrome (ABC-DS), the Trial Ready Cohort - Down syndrome (TRC-DS) and the Alzheimer’s Clinical Trials Consortium - Down syndrome (ACTC-DS).
He was invited to speak by the National Down Syndrome Society and the Global Down Syndrome Foundation, the two main advocacy groups for people with DS. These groups would like to see continued support and funding of research for AD in DS.