When it comes to Alzheimer’s disease, scientists usually -- and understandably -- look to the brain as their first center of attention. Now researchers at Tel Aviv University say that early clues regarding the progression of the disease can be found in the brain’s metabolism. In very early stages of the disease, before any symptoms appear, metabolic processes are already beginning to change in the brain, says PhD candidate Shiri Stempler of TAU’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine. Working with Profs. Eytan Ruppin and Lior Wolf of TAU’s Blavatnik School of Computer Science, Stempler has developed predictor models that use metabolic information to pinpoint the progression of Alzheimer’s. These models were 90 percent accurate in predicting the stage of the disease.
