World Alzheimer’s Day is an opportunity for all Alzheimer organizations to raise the awareness about Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This year the theme of ‘Remember me’ was chosen to highlight the importance of early detection and diagnosis of dementia. The World Health Organization declares that “The total number of people with dementia worldwide in 2010 is estimated at 35.6 million and is projected to nearly double every 20 years, to 65.7 million in 2030 and 115.4 million in 2050”. AD is named as one of the biggest global public health priorities.
While there is no cure available yet, an early diagnosis, a diminution of risks factors and a better understanding of under laying biological mechanisms can improve the care of affected people.
Bertin Technologies is implicated trough different actions to support the research on AD. The Precellys® bead beating homogenizers help researchers increase the throughput of their sample preparation. Thanks to their flexibility in terms of volume (from 96 well plate format to 15 ml) Precellys® are used in many researches necessiting the homogenization of complete organs (whole rat brain) or very small ones (spinal cord) to get optimal results. The unique efficiency and reproducibility greatly improve the crucial step of sample preparation to obtain consistent DNA/RNA or protein, the targeted molecules implicated in most AD researches (see the latest scientific publications : [1] [2] [3]).