A Q&A with NIA’s director on Alzheimer’s: What’s gone wrong, and what’s going right?

Alzheimer’s disease has become one of the top health priorities in the U.S.: More than 5 million Americans currently live with the disease, and that figure will continue to grow.

But there’s no effective treatment, and several clinical trials targeting a single molecule — a protein called beta-amyloid — have proven to be costly failures. Many researchers are starting from scratch in their pursuit to understand the biology of dementia.