Hannah's Heirs The Quest for the Genetic Origins of Alzheimer's Disease

Name: Hannah's Heirs The Quest for the Genetic Origins of Alzheimer's Disease
Price: 7.16 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9780195068092

ISBN-10: 0195068092

ISBN-13: 9780195068092

Edition: 1993

Authors: Daniel A. Pollen

List price: $30.00

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In the late 1800s, in the Ukrainian town of Ekaterinoslav, Hannah, a woman only in her forties, began suffering from progressive memory loss and eventually became unable to care for herself. What seemed an isolated incident remained unexplained at her death in the 1890s. Years later, Hannah's grandson Charles, a physician, spurred by his painful observations that many members of his family were all suffering from the same disease, began charting the family's medical history over five generations. In 1985, when this pedigree--one of the most extensive of its kind--fortuitously fell into the caring hands of neurologist Dr. Dan Pollen, Hannah's family would find themselves immersed in one of… the most enduring scientific searches of the century--the quest for the Alzheimer's disease genes. In Hannah's Heirs, Dr. Pollen himself tells the compelling story of Hannah's family and their monumental contributions to the fight against Alzheimer's. We are there in 1985 when Charles presents Pollen with three decades' worth of family medical records as well as data from studies that even Pollen and his associates did not then know existed. We see the selfless acts of Hannah's descendants in their struggle against Alzheimer's: great-grandson Jeff's conviction that after his death his brain be used for all possible research; great-granddaughter Lucy's decision to overcome her dread of flying in order to reach the research centre for testing; and Charles's continued research in the face of a disease that might strike him at any moment. Pollen sets this gripping story within the larger context of the efforts to solve the mysteries of Alzheimer's. He presents the foundations of modern genetic research, from Gregor Mendel's classic discovery of genes, to Alois Alzheimer's work on the brains of presenile dementia victims, to Watson and Crick's double helix model for the structure of DNA. He narrates the latter-twentieth century efforts of scientists to systematically narrow down the causes of Alzheimer's: Carlton Gajdusek's research excluding slow viruses as a cause of Alzheimer's; and the stunning success of Peter St. George- Hyslop's group in Toronto in September 1992 in decisively linking Alzheimer's in Hannah's family to chromosome 14. At the same time, Pollen offers a penetrating look at the ongoing conflicts involved in scientific research, revealing how intense competition for prestige and funding has driven some scientists to hoard precious cell lines. These practices have impeded efforts to discover both the causes and the treatment of Alzheimer's in the shortest possible time. As Hannah's great-grandson Ben has written, "This is a story that had to be told. Aspirations were transcendent, but because it involved people it could not be told without tears." Written by a physician-scientist who has been a central figure in the study of familial Alzheimer's, Hannah's Heirs is an inspiring portrait of the efforts of a courageous family to confront and overcome a "personal biological Holocaust," and an encouraging look at the advances in science that have created the basis for the eventual understanding and treatment of Alzheimer's disease. And for those who have seen the horrors of Alzheimer's, for all who fear the aging process that will take its toll on everyone, here is an inside look at one of the great medical detective stories of our time.

Book details

List price: $30.00
Copyright year: 1993
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Incorporated
Publication date: 6/24/1993
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 320
Size: 6.38" wide x 9.50" long x 1.02" tall
Weight: 1.320
Language: English



Prologue



Founders


The Life and Death of Hannah


Gregor Mendel


Alois Alzheimer



Into the Wilderness


The Descendants of Hannah and Shlomo


Mendel's Heirs


Alzheimer's Disease at Midcentury


Enter Genetics


New Seeds Are Sown


No Longer Alone


Twin Pillars of Hope


A Transmissible Virus?


Base Camp, Circa 1980



The Ascent


The New Basis for Linkage Maps of the Human Genome


The Quest for the Huntington's Disease Gene


Charles


Peter St. George-Hyslop and the Link to Chromosome 21


A Gene for Amyloid


A Siege of the Soul


Elizabeth W. and the Second Family from Bobruisk


A Unity of Heart and Mind


Russia Once Again


The Twenty-one Pedigrees of Nina Ivanovna Voskresenskaya


How Many Genes?


The Third Dove Goes Forth



The Path Ahead


Lost Tribes


The First Abnormal Gene Is Found


New Sightings


Mutual Aid as a Factor in Evolution and in Genetic Research


Hannah's Heirs


Epilogue


Landfall


Hannah's Gene


Notes


References


Index