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: 20-Jun-2026 16:16 ET (20-Jun-2026 20:16 GMT/UTC)

Favorable lifestyle and health linked to lower dementia risk even in people with a genetic risk factor

Kyushu University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study shows that maintaining favorable lifestyle and health conditions effectively mitigates dementia risk for APOE ε4 noncarriers and heterozygotes, validating population-based public health interventions targeting modifiable risk factors. Conversely, the persistently high risk in homozygotes, regardless of lifestyle, underscores the need for personalized precision prevention alongside these broad public health efforts.

Funder: Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), Japan, Suntory Holdings, Ltd.

A new vision: How Utah State bioengineering researchers are changing the outlook for aging eyes

Utah State University

Tissue engineers have developed a model to mimic the effects of aging to improve prevention and treatment of age-related macular degeneration and other age-related diseases, such as Alzheimer’s.

Journal: GeroScience
Funder: BrightFocus Foundation

Researchers identify a key biological tipping point in Alzheimer’s disease

Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers from VIB, KU Leuven, the UK-DRI and Muna Therapeutics have uncovered a critical biological transition that may determine whether Alzheimer’s disease pathology leads to dementia. Studying brain tissue from older adults with and without cognitive decline, as well as cognitively healthy centenarians, the team identified distinct cellular programs and immune-cell states associated with disease progression and resilience. Their findings, published in Nature Medicine, suggest that changes in microglia—the brain’s resident immune cells—could represent an important target for future Alzheimer’s therapies.

Journal: Nature Medicine
Funder: Muna Therapeutics, VIB, KU Leuven, ERC, UK DRI, FWO, Stichting Alzheimer Onderzoek

Air pollution may be harming your brain’s ‘encyclopedia’

University of California - Davis Health
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study finds higher long-term exposure to fine air pollution (PM2.5) is linked to lower semantic memory — the type of memory used for facts, words and general knowledge.

Journal: Alzheimer s & Dementia Behavior & Socioeconomics of Aging

Allen Institute launches Brain Health Accelerator to transform our understanding of brain disorders and develop new treatments

Allen Institute
Business Announcement

The Allen Institute, together with partner organizations, today launched the Brain Health accelerator (Brain Health): an ambitious global research initiative seeking to identify the specific brain cells and circuits affected in neurodegenerative disease and other brain disorders and use that knowledge to accelerate the development of new treatments.

Funder: Fund for Science and Technology

New reference map of the brain may transform how scientists detect disease

Keck School of Medicine of USC
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at the USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute (Stevens INI) at the Keck School of Medicine of USC have created one of the largest reference models ever developed for the human brain, using diffusion MRI scans from more than 54,000 people to chart how the brain’s communication pathways develop, mature, and decline across the lifespan, as reported in Nature Communications.

Journal: Nature Communications
Funder: Alzheimer's Association, European Research Council, Wellcome Trust

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