EurekAlert! In the Spotlight - Alzheimer's Awareness Month

Welcome to In the Spotlight, where each month we shine a light on something exciting, timely, or simply fascinating from the world of science.

In honor of Alzheimer's Awareness Month, we’re exploring the science and stories surrounding Alzheimer’s disease.

Latest News Releases

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 26-Oct-2026 23:16 ET (27-Oct-2026 03:16 GMT/UTC)

6-Aug-2026

Why women need to be prioritized in longevity research

Buck Institute for Research on Aging
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Why do women, on average, live longer than men, yet often face a greater burden of chronic disease later in life? Why do some of the most fertile animals in nature, including queen bees and naked mole-rat queens, also live exceptionally long lives? A perspective, to be published on August 6^th in Cell, introduces the Reproductive Resilience Hypothesis (RRH), a new way to think about these questions. The hypothesis, developed by Buck Institute researchers proposes that reproduction and longevity, often seen as opposing biological forces, may be tightly linked in the context of life history. The authors posit that women could be the key players in efforts to discover ways to extend human healthspan.

Journal: Cell
Funder: Larry L. Hillblom Foundation, Hevolution Foundation

5-Aug-2026

Depression linked to smaller volume in key memory region of older adults

Keck School of Medicine of USC
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Depression may be tied to subtle changes in the brain’s memory center, according to a new study from USC. Analyzing high-resolution brain scans from more than 2,000 cognitively healthy adults ages 50 to 90, researchers found that people with depression had smaller volume in a specific hippocampal subfield involved in memory retrieval and pattern separation. The association remained even after accounting for major Alzheimer’s disease risk factors, including amyloid and tau proteins and the APOE ε4 gene variant, suggesting that depression may affect hippocampal structure through pathways that are at least partly distinct from these well-known markers of dementia risk.

Journal: Translational Psychiatry
Funder: Office Of The Director of the National Institutes of Health

5-Aug-2026

Most people with atypical Alzheimer’s may be ineligible for new therapies

American Academy of Neurology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Many people with less common forms of Alzheimer’s disease may not qualify for newer anti-amyloid treatments designed to slow the disease, according to a study published August 5, 2026, in Neurology^®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Journal: Neurology

5-Aug-2026

Boston University professors receive $2.8 million NIH grant to launch Center on Demography and Economics of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias

Boston University School of Public Health
Grant and Award Announcement

Drs. Maria Glymour, Andrew Stokes, and Deborah Carr will lead the Boston University-Quantitative Population Science and Healthy Cognitive Aging Research Program (BU-SHARP) to foster national research collaboration on preventing and ameliorating the consequences of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias in disproportionately affected populations.

5-Aug-2026

Team's AI agent to speed Alzheimer's treatment

Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Business Announcement

Vanderbilt Health researchers have received a grant from Eli Lilly and Company, a multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Indianapolis, to build an artificial intelligence (AI) tool within the electronic health record system (EHR) to get patients with Alzheimer's disease to treatment faster. The computer project is designed for transferability to other health systems.

5-Aug-2026

Study uses living human brain tissue to map how electric stimulation affects neurons, genetic activity

University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences
Peer-Reviewed Publication

UCLA Health and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center researchers used real human brain tissue samples, donated by several neurosurgery patients and kept alive in a lab for several days, to test the underlying mechanisms of deep brain stimulation.

Journal: Nature