Description:

The Department of Pharmacology is invites you to attend a lecture presented by Dr. Grant Krafft, Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Scientist at Acumen Pharmeceuticals and Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology at the Feinberg School of Medicine.

The following, is an overview of this seminar, as described by Dr. Krafft:

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia, affecting more than 45M people worldwide. There are no effective therapies that block or slow AD progression. Recent clinical failures of amyloid-directed therapeutics have cast doubt on the prevailing amyloid hypothesis, yet none of the failed drugs directly targeted the relevant AD neurotoxins, soluble amyloid  oligomers (Ao), nor did they significantly attenuate Ao formation or neurotoxicity. This presentation will focus on the first Ao-selective AD immunotherapeutic, ACU-193, an IND candidate human antibody that effectively blocks Ao attack of neurons, ameliorates cognitive deficits in Tg AD mouse models, and represents the first valid clinical test of the amyloid hypothesis.