--- title: Why This Scientist Is Hopeful About an Alzheimer's Cure description: Biogen's Samantha Budd Haeberlein is hopeful that a cure for Alzheimer's disease isn't far off thanks to technology and clinical studies. canonical: https://time.com/5087364/scientist-hopeful-cure-to-alzheimers-disease-isnt-far-off/ author: Samantha Budd Haeberlein article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-01-04T11:15:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:53:48.014Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Why This Scientist Is Hopeful About an Alzheimer's Cure og:description: Biogen's Samantha Budd Haeberlein is hopeful that a cure for Alzheimer's disease isn't far off thanks to technology and clinical studies. og:url: https://time.com/5087364/scientist-hopeful-cure-to-alzheimers-disease-isnt-far-off/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9d996b40b40d51d2/6988f64286f68e0b556e7b07/optimist-issue-cure-for-alzheimers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3040 og:image:height: 1710 og:image:alt: optimist-issue-cure-for-alzheimers og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why This Scientist Is Hopeful About an Alzheimer's Cure twitter:description: Biogen's Samantha Budd Haeberlein is hopeful that a cure for Alzheimer's disease isn't far off thanks to technology and clinical studies. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9d996b40b40d51d2/6988f64286f68e0b556e7b07/optimist-issue-cure-for-alzheimers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why This Scientist Is Hopeful A Cure to Alzheimer’s Disease Isn’t Far Off > Sponsored content. 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A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=b1eab11f-f2d1-446c-b274-9145d24f052e&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Bill Gates on Healthcare [Watch (HLS stream): Bill Gates on Healthcare](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/YxMNctaW.m3u8) (2:58)  _Published 2018-01-04. Nancy Gibbs sits down with guest-editor Bill Gates to discuss advances in healthcare._ by [Samantha Budd Haeberlein](https://time.com/author/samantha-budd-haeberlein/) ## Samantha Budd Haeberlein Jan 4, 2018 11:15 AM UTC  Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is used in the diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is used in the diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases. Getty Images by [Samantha Budd Haeberlein](https://time.com/author/samantha-budd-haeberlein/) ## Samantha Budd Haeberlein Jan 4, 2018 11:15 AM UTC [Alzheimer’s disease](http://time.com/4848075/neurology-alzheimers-disease-sleep/) is a most tragic disease. It robs people of their memories and identities; it steals one’s sense of self. People affected by Alzheimer’s are growing in numbers. Currently, there are more than 5 million people in the U.S. diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. By 2050, that number could nearly triple, to 14 million people. The economic case is equally staggering. [The Alzheimer’s Association](http://time.com/5010030/young-blood-treating-alzheimers/) reports that in 2017 Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias cost the U.S. more than $250 billion in health care and long-term care. The need for a treatment is dire, and in the search for new medicines the rates of success are not high–only about 1% of early scientific discoveries will make it to become a medicine that reaches patients. It is a story that, on its face, sounds undeniably grim. But it is misleading. When we consider each “failed” study, we can often uncover answers to the question, Why didn’t this work? And those answers have propelled our understanding of Alzheimer’s disease forward–bringing us closer to finding a treatment. Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by the buildup of two proteins, called beta-amyloid and tau, in the brain. Both normally exist there, but in Alzheimer’s disease, something goes wrong. Beta-amyloid forms abnormal deposits in the brain called plaques, and tau gets twisted and tangled inside brain cells, causing damage that with time results in memory loss. Until recently, we could not see these proteins in patients without conducting an autopsy. One of the greatest advances in Alzheimer’s disease research is the ability to use a positron-emission tomography (PET) scan to confirm if a person has amyloid plaque or tau tangles in their brain before they begin a clinical study. I can recall the stunning shift when we first used PET imaging in Alzheimer’s disease patients in 2010\. The clinical center that we worked with had put forward 10 patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Using this new imaging technique, we could see that three of them did not have amyloid plaque in their brain–meaning they did not, in fact, have Alzheimer’s disease. This constituted a dramatic change in the precision with which we could understand the disorder. Imaging technology is also critical to the success of clinical studies, because some investigational drugs function by binding to those proteins and removing them. If the proteins and plaques are not present, the drug cannot work, which can negatively impact research results. Being able to see amyloid plaque in the brain of living patients also confirmed a suspicion that Alzheimer’s disease, just like heart disease, has a long silent phase. Now we can see that proteins build up in the brain and form plaque as early as 20 years before a person shows detectable memory loss. This means we may need to treat people much earlier, when plaque is forming and has not done too much damage. Today we are investigating potential treatments for earlier stages. There are clinical studies, including those we are advancing at Biogen, looking at the mechanisms in the body that cause plaque to form and investigating if we can slow or stop amyloid plaque from forming in the brain. Studies are also investigating the effectiveness of trapping and preventing tau protein from spreading across the brain. I believe we can deliver a treatment to the millions of Alzheimer’s disease patients and their families who are waiting. And my optimism is rooted in the science, which continues to evolve and advance right before our eyes. _Budd Haeberlein is a vice president of clinical development at Biogen_ ## Transcript You've focused on health at the outset when you and Melinda were launching your foundation. Our global health work has exceeded our expectations. Its been amazing that you can make vaccines cheap, you can get them out to more children. The achievement of childhood survival is one on the The most amazing human achievements. And what turned out to be harder than you bargained for? Well in health, HIV was a huge crisis when we got into this. The soonest we get a vaccine, is probably eight years from now. And so that's been far more difficult than we expected, and we need innovation which I know will come but it's been slower than we've hoped for. Investing in the health and wellbeing of people in a poor country pays dividends far beyond that country's borders. You've been very outspoken about The importance of foreign aid as not just on moral grounds but practical economic, national security grounds. What's the argument you made to the unemployed worker in Ohio about why this is money that the government should be spending? Well, the development need we provide helps. Stabilized the world and lift these countries up so they can be self- sufficient. And our aid is less than 1 % to the US budget. The payback to US foreign aid, getting rid of small pox, on the verge of getting rid of polio. Lifting countries like South Korea, there was a huge [ UNKNOWN ] up. So now it's a substantial, a donor. The impacts have been phenomenal. Well, you also touched on, about keeping epidemics in check before they spread. Of all the major bad things, That could happen, a nuclear war, asteroid, trogonicus quid, the one that's the most scary is the big epidemic, helping poor countries so they would detect it early and they would have the capacity to stop it when the numbers are very very small, is advantageous to the entire world In the case of Ebola, because it wasn't caught early, the U. S. had to spend a lot of money, including deploying the U. S. military, lots of CDC people went in and did heroic work. So it's a big success, but there will be many more like that that could be worse, that is the speed of infection Of a flu is 20 times faster than Ebola. So it could go global if you took this long to figure out what was going on, as we did with Ebola. So it's an investment for the world that prevents pandemics coming to the United States. 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