Alzheimer’s-in-a-Dish - Dr. Rudy Tanzi

Focus on Prevention

Alzheimer’s-in-a-Dish™ Changes Everything

Thanks to advanced brain imaging and blood tests, we know up to 50 million Americans are at high risk for dementia based on the presence of Alzheimer’s brain pathology, but do not yet show symptoms of cognitive impairment. However, early detection alone isn’t enough without safe, effective, and affordable treatments—and that’s where Alzheimer’s-in-a-Dish™ comes in.

100x faster. 100x cheaper.

At a fraction of the cost of traditional mouse experiments that can test only one drug at a time for a year, Alzheimer’s-in-a-Dish™ works quickly to test hundreds of drugs in just 6 weeks dramatically accelerating the identification of the best drugs for preventing Alzheimer’s disease by treating the pathology early, before cognitive decline sets in.

10-30

Years of Alzheimer’s disease pathology progression in 6 weeks.

1,700

FDA-approved drugs and 3,500 natural products (and combinations) tested that can potentially be repurposed.

300+

Different FDA-approved drugs and natural products that reduce or stop various aspects of Alzheimer’s pathology have been identified by Dr. Tanzi’s lab.

50+

Combinations of safe drugs and natural products identified that reduce multiple features of Alzheimer’s pathology.

Innovating Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery

For the first time, we can recreate toxic amyloid, tangle, and neuroinflammation pathology — the three main pathological features of Alzheimer’s disease — in a laboratory model, a mini-human brain organoid that recreates Alzheimer’s pathology in a lab petri dish.

Previously, drug testing in mouse models was slow, expensive, and incomplete, taking over a year to evaluate a single drug.

Alzheimer’s-in-a-Dish™ allows for rapid and efficient screening of drugs and natural supplements, cutting drug discovery time and cost by 100-fold.

Since 2014, this model has been used to test over 1,700 FDA-approved drugs and over 3,500 natural products thanks to funding from the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund (curealz.org)

This has led to the discovery of more than 50 unique, synergistic and multi-functional combinations of safe drugs and natural products (supplements) that significantly reduce beta-amyloid, tau tangles, and neuroinflammation, all of which harm the brain.

With these safe and effective candidates identified, the next step is human clinical trials to measure Alzheimer's biomarkers in the blood, confirm brain penetration, and evaluate reductions in Alzheimer’s pathology: plaques, tangles and neuroinflammation.

Thanks to their proven safety profiles, successful combinations can be fast-tracked for market development, offering new hope in the fight against Alzheimer’s.

The Future of Treatment Starts Now

Discovery of natural products that reduce age-related brain pathology

Alzheimer’s-in-a-Dish™ has allowed Dr. Tanzi to study the impact of various natural products on the pathological process in the human brain that leads to Alzheimer’s brain pathology and sets the stage for cognitive decline. His team has discovered four natural product ingredients proven in the lab to reduce excess beta-amyloid by enhancing its breakdown while also reducing levels of small proteins that cause neuroinflammation.

Testing of additional natural product combinations in Alzheimer’s clinical trials

Using Alzheimer’s-in-a-Dish™, Dr. Tanzi’s laboratory has identified more than 50 safe and effective drug and natural product combinations that are moving into human clinical trials at the McCance Center. We expect one or more of the combinations to be as successful in humans as they were in the model. The hope is to use successful combinations for early prevention of Alzheimer’s.