The NIH funding system is broken and full of nepotism.<br><br>Here is an example of some reviewer coments to a grant proposal aimed at studying the gene APOE4, the greatest single genetic risk factor for sporadic Alzheimer's Disease.<br><br>-Why are you studying APOE4? <br>-APOE4 carriers are typically excluded from human studies, [for confounding the data,] so why are you studying it in mice?<br><br>It's not surprising that the new Alzheimer's (AD) drug made it to market. The science was resounding over ten years ago; Amyloid plaque load does NOT correlate with AD progression. <br><br>I'm in the camp that soluble oligomeric amyloid beta 42 is the proximal neurotoxic agent in AD. Meaning that for some unknown reason a protein called a-beta 42 overaccumulates in the brain and causes damage to neurons. However it's the small circulating clumps of a-beta 42 that cause the damage not the stuff that settles into a solid plaque. <br><br>My group, the LaDu and Tai labs at UIC in Chicago.