Amyloid beta

Recent articles

Illustration of complex, intersecting biological structures.

Everything, everywhere, all at once: Inside the chaos of Alzheimer’s disease

To truly understand Alzheimer’s disease, we may need to take a systems approach, in which inflammation, vascular injury, impaired glucose metabolism and other factors interact in complex ways.

By Michael A. Yassa
16 June 2025 | 7 min read

Plaque levels differ in popular Alzheimer’s mouse model depending on which parent’s variants are passed down

5XFAD model mice that inherit two disease-related genes from their fathers have double the plaques seen in those with maternal inheritance, a new study shows.

By Shaena Montanari
4 February 2025 | 0 min watch
Six different neurons.

Early trajectory of Alzheimer’s tracked in single-cell brain atlases

Inflammation in glia and the loss of certain inhibitory cells may kick off a disease cascade decades before diagnosis.

By Angie Voyles Askham
23 October 2024 | 8 min read
Colored transmission electron micrograph (TEM) showing an amyloid plaque in a brain with Alzheimer’s disease.

Skeptics challenge claims of Alzheimer’s disease transmission via growth hormone

Some people who received cadaver-derived human growth hormone may not have Alzheimer’s as previously suggested, according to a new Perspective article.

By Shaena Montanari
23 August 2024 | 6 min read
Research image of green and purple mouse brain slices.

Putting a bright idea to the test

A surprising wave of findings in mice suggests that light and sound flickering at 40 hertz clears the brain of Alzheimer’s-disease-linked plaques. Several companies are hoping to prove it works in people.

By Shaena Montanari
21 August 2024 | 11 min read
Image of amyloid beta plaques.

Reviving ‘inside-out’ hypothesis of amyloid beta to explain Alzheimer’s mysteries

New research is resurfacing old ideas about where the protein forms the disease’s hallmark plaques.

By Elissa Welle
29 May 2024 | 8 min read
Picture of two Degus in a cage.

How inbreeding almost tanked an up-and-coming model of Alzheimer’s disease

But new genetic analyses and behavioral assays have made the Chilean degu a viable model again, researchers say.

By Calli McMurray
21 May 2024 | 10 min read
Photograph of Carol Jennings.

Carol Jennings, whose family’s genetics informed amyloid cascade hypothesis, dies at 70

Her advocacy work aided the discovery of a rare inherited form of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease and helped connect affected people with researchers.

By Elissa Welle
30 April 2024 | 4 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

Alison Barth discovers how different neuron types contribute to cortical function

Barth uses learning tasks in mice as a tool to drive synaptic plasticity in the sensory cortex, hoping to unlock more general principles of how the cortex works.

By Paul Middlebrooks
5 August 2026 | 1 min read
Mouse muscle cells.

Virus-like particles deliver gene-editing tools into Duchenne mouse model

The approach uses a protein found in fruit flies to ferry the gene editor Cas9 into muscle cells.

By Brianna Abbott
5 August 2026 | 5 min read

Textbook model of hippocampus’s role in memory may need updating

The CA3 region, long thought to have just one circuit, has two, sporting different wiring and functions, a new preprint suggests.

By Alissa de Chassey
4 August 2026 | 5 min read