Medical Research

FTD FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS

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AFTD’s Partners in FTD Care is an on-going initiative to educate professionals about FTD and develop best practices in community care.  Partners in FTD Care materials are partdeveloped by a committee of clinical nurse educators, social workers, and family and professional caregivers with contributions from specialists in speech-language pathology, occupational therapy, hospice.  Partners in FTD Care has two  elements:

  • Introductory Educational Materials
  • Quarterly e-newsletters featuring case studies in FTD

This is information that you can share with an MD as you are going through the diagnostic process if there is uncertainly on the part of the MD.

For more information go to http://www.theaftd.org/understandingftd/healthcare-professionals

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AFTD Awards $2 Million to Advance Biomarkers Research

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An excerpt from the press release. Full release.

“Doctors often rely on biomarkers – objective, easily measured biological features that indicate underlying pathology— to support accurate diagnosis and treatment efforts. Blood pressure, for example, is a widely-used biomarker for cardiovascular disease. Today, no comparable measures exist for FTD.

After reviewing proposals from 23 leading researchers worldwide, an expert panel has selected five researchers for multi-year FTD Biomarker awards:

  • Randall Bateman, MD, Washington University, St. Louis.
  • Christian Haas, PhD, Ludwig Maximilian University & the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Munich.
  • Leonard Petrucelli, PhD, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville.
  • Jonathan Rohrer, MRCP, PhD, University College London, UK.
  • Judith Steen, PhD, Boston Children’s Hospital.

Biomarkers will help doctors to diagnose FTD, track its progression, and evaluate potential treatments. These efforts could also benefit research targeting diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and ALS.”

Visit the AFTD site for more details about the FTD Biomarkers Initiative.

NIH announces grants for frontotemporal degeneration research

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From the NIH site: “Projects will help advance research through collaborations and development of novel strategies”

NIHThe National Institutes of Health will award three large, five-year projects on a specific form of dementia, known as frontotemporal because of the areas of the brain that are affected. The projects, …. announced today total more than $5.9 million for 2014.

“The projects aim to advance our understanding of frontotemporal degeneration by improving diagnosis, identifying preventive strategies and providing new insights into the genetics underlying this complex disorder,” said Margaret Sutherland, Ph.D., program director at NINDS.

For more info, go to http://www.nih.gov/news/health/oct2014/ninds-23.htm