GREENSBORO, N.C. – A bioengineering professor at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Dr. Yeoheung Yun, was awarded over $1.43 million from the National Institutes of Health to develop a functional mini-brain model in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease.
Yun explains the differences between the human and animal brain are significant, so the only way to change the game on Alzheimer’s research is to target treatment strategies focused on the human brain and test if those treatments are effective.
It’s a devastating disease that affects more than 6 million Americans.
Greensboro resident Tommy Green says his mother was diagnosed with the disease in 2009 on her 63rd birthday.
He explains it was heartbreaking because his grandmother also had it and he knew the trajectory of the disease was not going to be positive.
“Just the progression itself of her not being able to do things herself, and just, you know, to where she is now in a memory care unit. She doesn’t know us,” Green says.
Green says it’s stressful because of the responsibility he has to take on for his mother, including her finances and medical care.
This is why N.C. A&T and other researchers across our country are working hard to find a treatment to this disease.
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