Biomarkers for Alzheimer's diagnosis and drug discovery: Why have all our recent drug trials failed?

Speaker:
Prof Murali Doraiswamy
Professor of Psychiatry and Geriatrics
Head, Division of Biological Psychiatry, Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, Duke University

Host:
Prof Ranga Krishnan
Dean, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School

Date:
Thursday, February 2, 2012

Time:
4.00pm to 5.00pm
(Light refreshments will be served at 3.30pm)

Venue:
Amphitheatre, Level 2
Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School
8 College Road, Singapore 169857
(opposite Singapore General Hospital, Block 6/7)

Contact Person:
Ms Jacqueline Goh, Duke-NUS Research Affairs Department
Tel: 6601 2275 or Email: jacqueline.goh@duke-nus.edu.sg

Synopsis:
In 1906 when Dr Alzheimer’s described a peculiar disease of the cerebral cortex, he used no biomarkers. He relied on his clinical skills and autopsy examination, as clinicians have done now for a hundred years. However, today there has been a virtual explosion of research data from biomarkers such as vMRI, fMRI, fcMRI, DTI, ASL, FDG-PET, PIB-PET, Florbetapir-PET, Sapphire, BCI, Cognision, GWAS, metabolomics, and proteomics. Indeed the availability of data from such studies has led to new research diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer’s disease as well as those at risk for it. Such criteria have not undergone field trials to be fully accepted worldwide but are starting to be used by pharmaceutical companies in clinical trials. My lab at Duke has been involved with designing and conducting several of these studies. Given the failures of several high profile anti-amyloid strategies, we must look to rigorously conducted biomarker studies to yield innovative targets so we can find the right treatments to intervene early. Further, given the worldwide impact of dementia, and the rapid growth of older populations in Asia, there are tremendous unmet needs and opportunities in this field.

Biography:
Prof. Murali Doraiswamy is Head of the Division of Biological Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry at Duke where he is also Professor in Geriatrics and Medicine. He serves on the Executive Committee of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences and the Steering Committee for the Duke Center for Translational Imaging. Dr. Doraiswamy directs a leading clinical trials unit that is focused on translational research into biomarkers and drug discovery for dementia and brain health. He has coauthored more than 250 scientific reports and co-edited Brain Imaging in Clinical Psychiatry in 1995 (the first book on this topic) with Prof. Krishnan. Dr. Doraiswamy has received many awards for his research including a Fellowship by distinction from the Royal College of Physicians (London). He was part of the first multicenter amyloid PET to autopsy study, which won the DeLeon prize for Best Human Neuroimaging Study in 2011. Dr. Doraiswamy has been an advisor to the WHO, FDA, NIH, and numerous pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies, and is a scientific co-founder of Sonexa Therapeutics. Dr. Doraiswamy has served on the national scientific advisory panel for the American Federation for Aging Research and The Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. Dr. Doraiswamy has been invited to speak by organizations such as AARP, World Science Festival, International Youth Day (at United Nations). He is co-author of The Alzheimer's Action Plan, a guide for senior citizens that was recognized as one of the best consumer health books in 2009 and of a new e-book, Living Well After a Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s.