Follow the Tau: Path to Earlier Alzheimer’s Diagnosis

Alzheimer’s disease is commonly known for its symptoms: memory loss, cognitive impairment, and difficulty with daily tasks, but can only be definitively diagnosed by a look at the brain. A scan must show the abnormal buildup of two distinct brain proteins, beta-amyloid and tau, and it’s the dual presence of both that distinguishes the disease from other forms of dementia. Brown University is researching different positron emission tomography (PET) imaging methods for detecting Alzheimer’s disease as part of the HEAD study, a long-term project involving nine sites in the United States, Canada and Spain.