The fourth annual Fork It Alzheimer’s event, hosted by Daryl and Irwin Simon in partnership with the Alzheimer’s Association, took place on July 12, raising funds for groundbreaking Alzheimer’s disease (AD) prevention efforts. During the event, the Simon family announced that the Fork It Fund, created in collaboration with their friend, Stacy Polley, and the Association, awarded $1 million to support a major initiative at the USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute (Stevens INI) at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. 

A centerpiece of the event was a video presentation by Stevens INI Director and Fork It-funded researcher Arthur W. Toga, Ph.D. Toga detailed the Fund’s support of the Global Alzheimer’s Association Interactive Network (GAAIN), a global data-sharing platform created at the Stevens INI intended to accelerate scientific discovery by making critical research data more accessible worldwide. The first of its kind, GAAIN is a federated network connecting independently operated Alzheimer’s disease and dementia-related data repositories from around the world. GAAIN was created in 2015 to address the challenges of making data available and accessible while supporting and connecting researchers worldwide to accelerate AD research, including advancing treatments and prevention strategies.

Endangered Pacific pocket mice, native to Southern California, were once thought to be extinct until a tiny remnant population was rediscovered in the mid-1990s. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance established a conservation breeding and reintroduction program to save the species from extinction. Though there has been significant success with breeding and reintroduction, the species is still at risk of losing genetic diversity, which reduces its survival and reproduction. In a new study published in the prestigious scientific journal Science on August 21, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance researchers demonstrate how genetic rescue can be used as an effective strategy for the conservation of this species. This strategy includes introducing Pacific pocket mice from genetically distinct populations for breeding purposes to boost genetic diversity and, in turn, the health of the population.  

An artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted model that combines a patient’s MRI, biochemical, and clinical information shows preliminary promise in improving predictions of whether their knee osteoarthritis may soon worsen. Ting Wang of Chongqing Medical University, China, and colleagues present this model August 21^st in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine.

The global incidence of autoimmune diseases among children has increased over the past few decades. A study published August 21^st in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Ju-Young Shin at Sungkyunkwan University, Republic of Korea, and colleagues suggests that early life antibiotic exposure is not associated with an increased risk of autoimmune diseases in children.