Paul Aisen

Last updated

Paul Stephen Aisen is an American physician and medical researcher. He started his career as a rheumatologist and then made Alzheimer's disease his focus. As of 2015 he was on the faculty of the Keck School of Medicine of USC and his offices were in San Diego. [1]

Aisen did his undergraduate work in biochemistry and molecular biology at Harvard and obtained his medical degree from Columbia University. He did his residency at Case Western Reserve University and at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, and trained further through a fellowship in rheumatology at New York University. He has a private practice as a GP and rheumatologist in New York, then joined the faculty of Mount Sinai in 1994. He was recruited to the Georgetown University School of Medicine in 1999 in neurology and medicine and began focusing his practice and research on Alzheimer's disease there. [2]

In 2007 Aisen was recruited to University of California San Diego to run the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study, which UCSD had established in 1991 and coordinates studies on Alzheimer's disease drugs like solanezumab. [3] He left UCSD in 2015 because he was unhappy with the level of support that UCSD was providing him and due to USC's offer. [4] UCSD and USC ended up in litigation over control of the ca. $100 million program and its research data, which involved six ongoing clinical trials and data collected on thousands of clinical trial subjects. [5] [6] Part of the dispute arose because Aisen's lab had uploaded the data from the ADCS onto Amazon Cloud servers and would not give the passwords to UCSD officials. [3] USC rented space for Aisen in a San Diego office park, where Keck's Alzheimer's Therapeutic Research Institute is located under Aisen's direction. [1] [7] Some aspects of data management were temporarily settled in 2016; [8] and a settlement was reached in 2019, with USC to pay UCD $50 million compensation and make a public statement that is actions "did not align with the standards of ethics and integrity which USC expects of all its faculty, administrators, and staff." [9]

Aisen has been a strong proponent of the amyloid hypothesis and as of 2017 believed that earlier intervention with drugs against amyloid might show more efficacy than interventions when the disease process is well underway, and has helped initiate large trials to test ways to prevent Alzheimer's disease. [10] [11]

He has served as a consultant or advisor for pharmaceutical companies Eli Lilly [3] [12] and Janssen, [13] smaller biotech companies exploring alternative approaches to AD like Anavex Life Sciences, [14] Proclara, [15] CohBar, [16] and Neurophage, [17] as well as nonprofits like ACT-AD. [18] He is a principal investigator in the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. [19]

In November 2018 Expertscape recognized Aisen as one of the world's top-ranked experts in Alzheimer's disease. [20] He has an h-index of 107 according to Semantic Scholar. [21]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scripps Research</span> Nonprofit American medical research institute

Scripps Research, previously known as The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), is a nonprofit American medical research facility that focuses on research and education in the biomedical sciences. Headquartered in San Diego, California, the institute has over 170 laboratories employing 2,100 scientists, technicians, graduate students, and administrative and other staff, making it the largest private, non-profit biomedical research organization in the United States and among the largest in the world.

The Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California teaches and trains physicians, biomedical scientists and other healthcare professionals, conducts medical research, and treats patients. Founded in 1885, it is the second oldest medical school in California after the UCSF School of Medicine.

Lawrence S.B. Goldstein is a professor of cellular and molecular medicine at University of California, San Diego and investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He receives grant funding from the NIH, the Johns Hopkins ALS Center, the HighQ Foundation, and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. In 2020 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UC San Diego School of Medicine</span> Medical school of UC San Diego

The University of California San Diego School of Medicine is the graduate medical school of the University of California, San Diego, a public land-grant research university in La Jolla, California. It was the third medical school in the University of California system, after those established at UCSF and UCLA, and is the only medical school in the San Diego metropolitan area. It is closely affiliated with the medical centers that are part of UC San Diego Health.

Bart De Strooper is a Belgian molecular biologist and professor at Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie and KU Leuven and the UK Dementia Research Institute and University College London, UK. His research interests are in Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Solanezumab is a monoclonal antibody being investigated by Eli Lilly as a neuroprotector for patients with Alzheimer's disease. The drug originally attracted extensive media coverage proclaiming it a breakthrough, but it has failed to show promise in Phase III trials.

Samuel E. Gandy, is a neurologist, cell biologist, Alzheimer's disease (AD) researcher and expert in the metabolism of the sticky substance called amyloid that clogs the brain in patients with Alzheimer's. His team discovered the first drugs that could lower the formation of amyloid.

Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) is a multisite study that aims to improve clinical trials for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD). This cooperative study combines expertise and funding from the private and public sector to study subjects with AD, as well as those who may develop AD and controls with no signs of cognitive impairment. Researchers at 63 sites in the US and Canada track the progression of AD in the human brain with neuroimaging, biochemical, and genetic biological markers. This knowledge helps to find better clinical trials for the prevention and treatment of AD. ADNI has made a global impact, firstly by developing a set of standardized protocols to allow the comparison of results from multiple centers, and secondly by its data-sharing policy which makes available all at the data without embargo to qualified researchers worldwide. To date, over 1000 scientific publications have used ADNI data. A number of other initiatives related to AD and other diseases have been designed and implemented using ADNI as a model. ADNI has been running since 2004 and is currently funded until 2021.

The Alzheimer's disease biomarkers are neurochemical indicators used to assess the risk or presence of the disease. The biomarkers can be used to diagnose Alzheimer's disease (AD) in a very early stage, but they also provide objective and reliable measures of disease progress. It is imperative to diagnose AD disease as soon as possible, because neuropathologic changes of AD precede the symptoms by years. It is well known that amyloid beta (Aβ) is a good indicator of AD disease, which has facilitated doctors to accurately pre-diagnose cases of AD. When Aβ peptide is released by proteolytic cleavage of amyloid-beta precursor protein, some Aβ peptides that are solubilized are detected in CSF and blood plasma which makes AB peptides a promising candidate for biological markers. It has been shown that the amyloid beta biomarker shows 80% or above sensitivity and specificity, in distinguishing AD from dementia. It is believed that amyloid beta as a biomarker will provide a future for diagnosis of AD and eventually treatment of AD.

Pinchas Cohen is the dean of the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, holds the William and Sylvia Kugel Dean's Chair in Gerontology and serves as the executive director of the Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center.

Paul Saltman was a Professor of Biology at the University of California, San Diego, for more than three decades, and an internationally renowned nutrition expert. He received a B.S. in chemistry (1949) and Ph.D. in biochemistry (1953) from the California Institute of Technology. He commenced employment at the Keck School of Medicine at USC, until 1967, when he accepted the position of provost of Revelle College at the University of California, San Diego, "to bring undergraduate education to the same high level of academic excellence that marks the graduate program at the heavily science-oriented college." In 1972 Saltman was appointed Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. In 1980, he returned to full-time research and teaching at UCSD. After his death, from prostate cancer in 1999, the Paul D. Saltman Endowed Chair in Science Education was established by UCSD to recognize a distinguished senior member of Biological Sciences faculty for his/her commitment to, and success in teaching science. Saltman was married to Barbara Saltman for over 50 years, and is survived by sons David and Joshua, and five grandchildren.

Florbetaben, a fluorine-18 (18F)-labeled stilbene derivative, trade name NeuraCeq, is a diagnostic radiotracer developed for routine clinical application to visualize β-amyloid plaques in the brain. It is indicated for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging of β-amyloid neuritic plaque density in the brains of adult patients with cognitive impairment who are being evaluated for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other causes of cognitive impairment. β-amyloid is a key neuropathological hallmark of AD, so markers of β-amyloid plaque accumulation in the brain are useful in distinguishing AD from other causes of dementia. The tracer successfully completed a global multicenter phase 0–III development program and obtained approval in Europe, US and South Korea in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don W. Cleveland</span>

Don W. Cleveland is an American cancer biologist and neurobiologist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Scheltens</span> Dutch professor of neurology

Philip Scheltens is a Dutch professor of neurology and founder of the Alzheimer Centre, Amsterdam University Medical Centers, location VUmc in Amsterdam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blarcamesine</span> Medication

Blarcamesine is an experimental drug developed by Anavex Life Sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giulio Maria Pasinetti</span>

Giulio Maria Pasinetti is the Program Director of the Center on Molecular Integrative Neuroresilience and is the Saunders Family Chair in Neurology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) in New York City. Pasinetti is a Professor of Neurology, Psychiatry, Neuroscience, and Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at ISMMS.

The Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS) was founded at University of California San Diego in 1991 and coordinates clinical trials of candidate treatments for Alzheimer's disease. It is funded by the National Institutes of Health as well as companies that develop drugs. As of 2008, 75 research sites in the United States and Canada were part of the consortium. Leon Thal served as director until February 2007, when he died; Paul Aisen was recruited to succeed him. In 2006, the NIH awarded $52 million to ADCS to fund 6 years of further clinical trials.

Lecanemab, sold under the brand name Leqembi, is a monoclonal antibody medication used for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Lecanemab is an amyloid beta-directed antibody. It is given via intravenous infusion. The most common side effects of lecanemab include headache, infusion-related reactions and amyloid-related imaging abnormalities, a side effect known to occur with the class of antibodies targeting amyloid.

Paul-Peter Tak is an immunologist and academic specialising in the fields of rheumatology and immunology. In addition to academic research, he served as an executive of several pharmaceutical companies.

Jennifer J. Manly is an American neuropsychologist. She is a Professor of Neuropsychology in Neurology at the Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center and the Taub Institute for Research in Aging and Alzheimer's Disease at Columbia University. Manly studies how race, culture, socioeconomic status, and education influence the risk of cognitive decline in aging.

References

  1. 1 2 Fikes, Bradley J. (2 August 2015). "Next steps for scientist in eye of UCSD-USC Alzheimer's spat". San Diego Tribune.
  2. ↑ "Faculty profile: Paul Stephen Aisen". Keck School of Medicine of USC. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 Garde, Damian (August 5, 2015). "Judge orders a halt to Alzheimer's spat as Eli Lilly chooses sides in dispute". FierceBiotech.
  4. ↑ Fikes, Bradley J. (5 July 2015). "UC San Diego sues USC and scientist, alleging conspiracy to take funding, data". Los Angeles Times.
  5. ↑ Check Hayden, Erika (16 July 2015). "Alzheimer's data lawsuit is sign of growing tensions". Nature. 523 (7560): 265. doi:10.1038/nature.2015.17932.
  6. ↑ Basken, Paul (23 July 2015). "Grant Dispute Throws an Unwritten Rule of Academic Poaching Out the Window". The Chronicle of Higher Education.
  7. ↑ Wang, Shirley S.; Loftus, Peter (14 October 2015). "Alzheimer's Research Effort Is Ensnared in Legal Dispute". Wall Street Journal.
  8. ↑ Potter, Matt (January 11, 2016). "Deal gives UCSD "read only" rights to Alzheimer's data". San Diego Reader.
  9. ↑ "Settlement Reached Between UCSD and USC, Paul Aisen". ALZForum. 5 July 2019. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  10. ↑ Elie, Dolgin (16 February 2017). "The new offensive on Alzheimer's disease: Stop it before it starts". Newsweek.
  11. ↑ Sperling, RA; Rentz, DM; Johnson, KA; Karlawish, J; Donohue, M; Salmon, DP; Aisen, P (19 March 2014). "The A4 study: stopping AD before symptoms begin?". Science Translational Medicine. 6 (228): 228fs13. doi:10.1126/scitranslmed.3007941. PMC   4049292 . PMID   24648338.
  12. ↑ Ornstein, Charles; Groeger, Groeger; Tigas, Mike; Grochowski Jones, Ryann. "Dollars for Docs: Paul Aisen". ProPublica.
  13. ↑ Osborne, Randy (January 17, 2017). "WashU early AD initiative could yield broader clues". BioWorld Today.
  14. ↑ "Scientific Advisory Board". Anavex. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  15. ↑ "Leadership - SAB - Paul Aisen". Proclara Biosciences. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  16. ↑ "Paul Aisen, M.D. – Consultant, Alzheimer's Disease". CohBar. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  17. ↑ "Scientific Advisory Board". Neurophage Pharmaceuticals. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  18. ↑ "Science Advisory Board". ACT-AD. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  19. ↑ "Principal Investigators". ADNI. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  20. ↑ "Expertscape: Alzheimer Disease, November 2018". expertscape.com. November 2018. Retrieved 2018-11-15.
  21. ↑ "P. Aisen". Semantic Scholar . Retrieved 2 December 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.