Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience

The Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience supports 14 high-risk, high-reward projects to advance brain health and resilience research, fostering bold research across various scientific disciplines.

This week on From Our Neurons to Yours, we talk with Stanford neurologist Mike Greicius about his critique of new amyloid-clearing Alzheimer's drugs, and his optimism for the next wave of therapies currently in development.

Blocking the kynurenine pathway, a regulator of brain metabolism, can restore cognitive function in lab mice with Alzheimer’s disease. The pathway is overactivated in Alzheimer’s, disrupting glucose metabolism and starving neurons of energy.

The APOE4 genetic variant, carried by about 20% of people, significantly raises Alzheimer’s risk. But should we boost the gene’s potency or suppress it? A recent discovery by Knight Initiative affiliate, Mike Greicius, may provide the answers we need.

Study in mice, supported by the Knight Initiative, suggests that an experimental cancer drug boosted brain metabolism, restored memory, and improved Alzheimer's symptoms. This novel approach may offer a new way to treat Alzheimer's beyond targeting amyloid plaques.