Klein Featured in Northwestern News
William Klein and the Klein Lab are featured in Northwestern News for discovering a new non-invasive method that can detect Alzheimer’s early. Klein and his research team collaborated with Vinayak Dravid’s team in Materials Science to develop an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) probe that pairs a magnetic nanostructure (MNS) with an antibody that seeks out the amyloid beta brain toxins responsible for onset of the disease. The accumulated toxins, because of the associated magnetic nanostructures, show up as dark areas in MRI scans of the brain.This ability to detect the molecular toxins may one day enable scientists to both spot trouble early and better design drugs or therapies to combat and monitor the disease. And, while not the focus of the study, early evidence suggests the MRI probe improves memory, too, by binding to the toxins to render them “handcuffed” to do further damage.
Their paper, titled Towards non-invasive diagnostic imaging of early-stage Alzheimer's disease, was published in Nature Nanotechnology.
Read the full story, New Non-Invasive Method can Detect Alzheimer’s Disease Early, written by Megan Fellman on Northwestern News.
22 December 2014