April 19, 2004
In Print Photo by Leah Gourley From Focus: Alzheimer's Study Maps Alternate Route to Disease Amyloid plaques, made up mostly of beta-amyloid peptides, are the hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. But does the pathology actually begin with plaques? Working in mice, Jie Shen and colleagues demonstrate that eliminating two genes called presenilins, associated with plaque formation, leads to learning and memory deficits reminiscent of dementia, but without the production of beta-amyloid. The findings indicate that some Alzheimer's cases may be due to a loss, not a gain, of presenilin function.   Publications Online BBS Bulletin Focus HMI World HSTconnector MD-PhD Newsletter MedEd News Mentations On The Brain   Related Links InteliHealth Harvard Health Publications		Headlines Study Confirms Alcohol's Role in Increasing Risk of Gout Upcoming The Robert H. Ebert Lecture: The Big Divide-Health Care Across the Cultures Richard Allen Williams, UCLA Friday, April 23 1:00-2:00 p.m. Social Enterprise Faculty Presentation Regina Herzlinger, HBS Thursday, April 28 3:30-5:00 p.m. Lab Works A multimedia site featuring Harvard Medical research		Spotlight Photo by Liza Green/HMS Media Services Hinton-Wright Society Takes New Name from Harold Amos The Hinton-Wright Biomedical Research Society has been renamed the Harold Amos Biomedical Research Society in honor of the late professor emeritus Harold Amos, who supported the society at the time of its inception in 1983. Student Scene Photo by Graham Ramsay The Mirror of Medical Training Choosing a specialty is the last great challenge of medical school, says Alisa Land, a time when students envision a professional identity largely from their third-year clinical experiences. The process of making a choice would be less problematic, though, if the medical content of each field were the primary basis for decision-making. She argues that marked variation in remuneration, practice culture, and professional lifestyle may distort the final choices.

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