Charles Piller

The research that Schrag worked on with Grebe looked at the potential impact that diet could have on the onset and progression of Alzheimer's.

In 2006, they and a few other co-authors published a paper in the Journal of Neurochemistry called Deposition of Iron and Beta Amyloid Plaques is Associated with Cortical Cellular Damage in Rabbits Fed with Long-Term Cholesterol-Enriched Diets.

So what was the idea of this paper?

Pretend that I know nothing about the neuroscience here, which would be close to accurate.

Can you just summarize the state of Alzheimer's research?

What's known?

What's not known?

What's disputed?

This domino effect is known as the amyloid cascade hypothesis.

And that is the hypothesis toward which many billions of research dollars have been directed.

So what's the problem with that?

Schrag's own research, which looks at the connections between Alzheimer's and blood vessel diseases, is a pushback against the amyloid cascade hypothesis.

And Schrag has also been pushing back as a whistleblower.

I understand that outside of your work at Vanderbilt and your work within the academic community generally, that you also work as an independent research integrity consultant.

Are all four of those words correct and in the right order?

When you first started pursuing a career in academic research, is this how you envisioned it was going to work out?

Not in the slightest.

No.

So how do you feel about it at this moment?

If you could start again, would you pursue the whistleblower detour or no?