A new study challenges conventional thinking about how brain cells die in Alzheimer’s disease. The findings demonstrate a previously unknown mechanism by which the cells die and will help lead researchers in new directions for treating the degenerative brain disease. The study by scientists at the University of Calgary’s Hotchkiss Brain Institute is published this week in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Each year nearly 50,000 Canadians will have a stroke and of these, approximately 12,000 will die. One in six Canadians will have a stroke over their lifetime and its magnitude as a health care concern has made it a high priority at the HBI. The HBI’s Cerebral Circulation research theme was initiated with the principal goal of bringing together researchers studying various aspects of brain blood flow.