Big money going toward new therapies for FTD

Three scientists will receive $1.2 million in research grants over four years to help accelerate the development of novel therapies for Frontotemporal Dementias. The money comes from the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation and the Association for Frontotemporal Dementias.

"This year's recipients are all engaged in the type of research that offers both caregivers and patients the optimism they need to face the chalenges of living with FTD," Phil Lovett, a foundation board member and research liaison, said in a news release.

Recipients include:

* Dr. Philip Van Damme of Leuven University in Belgium.

Recently he was involved in research published in the Annals of Neurology that examined mutations that lead to a loss of progranulin, or PGRN, in a "considerable portion" of frontotemporal lobar degeneration.

* Einar M. Sigurdsson, Ph.D., of New York University School of Medicine.

His recent work in the journal, Current Alzheimer Research explains the challenge of getting immunotherapies that target the amyloid-beta peptide in Alzheimer's disease ready for clinical trials.

* W. Haung Yu, Ph.D., of The Taub Institute of Columbia University Medical Center.

The Journal of Neuroscience recently featured work from Yu about protein processing at the cellular/molecular level.