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

Illustration of cake with genetic code inside.

The genome offers a recipe, not a blueprint, for the brain

During brain development, genes set the rules and turn the knobs; self-organization does much of the rest.

By Ila Fiete
2 November 2026 | 8 min read
Illustration of four faces of a rhesus macaque transitioning from opaque to transparent.

Autism research involving monkeys contends with uphill battle

Macaques and marmosets recapitulate the condition’s core traits better than mice can, but funding uncertainty and challenges at primate centers in the United States could make this work difficult to continue.

By Diana Kwon
2 November 2026 | 8 min read
A measuring cup with a whirlpool in it.

When is self-organization a mechanism in brain development?

Retinal waves offer a powerful example of a self-organizing system that can build structure without external guidance. The field would do well to embrace such phenomena more broadly as a type of mechanistic explanation.

By P. Robin Hiesinger
2 November 2026 | 6 min read