Charles Piller

So I just want to make it clear that I think you can have a different position and still support some of what's going on and be critical of a lot of the other things that are happening with the new administration.

So I just want to make it clear that I think you can have a different position and still support some of what's going on and be critical of a lot of the other things that are happening with the new administration.

You have a way of capturing my long answer in a few key words, Dylan. Thank you for doing that.

You have a way of capturing my long answer in a few key words, Dylan. Thank you for doing that.

Sure. So perhaps it would be good if I went back to the beginning of how I started to do my reporting for this book and why. And it all began when I got connected with a young professor at Vanderbilt University, a guy by the name of Matthew Schrag. who was a guy who had been looking into a particular Alzheimer's drug called Simufilam from a company called Cassava Sciences.

Sure. So perhaps it would be good if I went back to the beginning of how I started to do my reporting for this book and why. And it all began when I got connected with a young professor at Vanderbilt University, a guy by the name of Matthew Schrag. who was a guy who had been looking into a particular Alzheimer's drug called Simufilam from a company called Cassava Sciences.

Now that drug crashed and burned, is no longer being even thought about as a possible remedy for Alzheimer's. It's a long story I tell in the book, but I'm going to pause away from that for now and talk about why that led to this bigger set of issues. And that's because

Now that drug crashed and burned, is no longer being even thought about as a possible remedy for Alzheimer's. It's a long story I tell in the book, but I'm going to pause away from that for now and talk about why that led to this bigger set of issues. And that's because

Schrag, who is himself a neuroscientist who researches in a lab some of the potential causes of Alzheimer's disease, and also somebody who treats Alzheimer's patients, because he's also a physician who is a neurologist who has patients who have the disease. And he... had over the many months begun to hone his ability to see potential doctoring and scientific images.

Schrag, who is himself a neuroscientist who researches in a lab some of the potential causes of Alzheimer's disease, and also somebody who treats Alzheimer's patients, because he's also a physician who is a neurologist who has patients who have the disease. And he... had over the many months begun to hone his ability to see potential doctoring and scientific images.

And what I mean by that is he could look at images, say, of brain tissue, magnifications of brain tissue, and be able to look at them and see the possibility that someone had used a program like Photoshop to move some things around or to obscure certain elements of the image or to copy elements and clone them within an image

And what I mean by that is he could look at images, say, of brain tissue, magnifications of brain tissue, and be able to look at them and see the possibility that someone had used a program like Photoshop to move some things around or to obscure certain elements of the image or to copy elements and clone them within an image

all to accentuate a point that was being made for a scientific paper, but to do so improperly in a way that is essentially a kind of scientific cheating. And because he had developed the talent for seeing these things from looking at this, initially looking at the science behind this drug, semufilam, he was looking more broadly to expand his ability to do this.

all to accentuate a point that was being made for a scientific paper, but to do so improperly in a way that is essentially a kind of scientific cheating. And because he had developed the talent for seeing these things from looking at this, initially looking at the science behind this drug, semufilam, he was looking more broadly to expand his ability to do this.

And he, in a way, kind of just by accident ran across one of the seminal studies in the history of Alzheimer's disease. Now, this was a study done in 2006 at the University of Minnesota. And what this study did, if I could just

And he, in a way, kind of just by accident ran across one of the seminal studies in the history of Alzheimer's disease. Now, this was a study done in 2006 at the University of Minnesota. And what this study did, if I could just

use a few, a little bit of scientific explanation to bring this experiment to life for listeners a little bit, is that it involved a group that was using genetically engineered mice to produce copious amounts of a protein that deposits in their brains. This protein is called amyloid.

use a few, a little bit of scientific explanation to bring this experiment to life for listeners a little bit, is that it involved a group that was using genetically engineered mice to produce copious amounts of a protein that deposits in their brains. This protein is called amyloid.

And it is thought by many, many, many people to be the linchpin of Alzheimer's disease, the thing that kicks off a series of biochemical effects in the brain. that leads to cell death in the brain and ultimately to dementia.

And it is thought by many, many, many people to be the linchpin of Alzheimer's disease, the thing that kicks off a series of biochemical effects in the brain. that leads to cell death in the brain and ultimately to dementia.