Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Frank Shewmaker @frank-shewmaker.bsky.social · 28d

Excellent reporting from Corinne Purtill on frontotemporal dementia. "When someone is not who they were, think neurology before psychology” www.yahoo.com/news/article...

'I lost me': How frontotemporal dementia changed a mind and a marriage

A Westlake Village man living with frontotemporal dementia has something few people with the condition do: the ability to describe his disease.

www.yahoo.com

Frank Shewmaker @frank-shewmaker.bsky.social · Sep 9

Excellent reporting from NYT on the science of diagnosing CTE (and other tauopathies) in postmortem brain.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/... 🧪

Gunman in Manhattan Shooting Claimed to Have CTE. How Do Doctors Search for It? (Gift Article)

summary

www.nytimes.com

1 2 2

Frank Shewmaker @frank-shewmaker.bsky.social · Aug 8

Fantastic story about how NIH funding helped transform an unexpected hypothesis into a scientific breakthrough and a successful commercial biomarker assay for the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease and related disorders: www.ninds.nih.gov/about-ninds/75th-anniversary/cnd-life-sciences 🧪

A Breakthrough Beneath the Skin

How a bold idea and smart federal investment created jobs, built a company, and is helping diagnose Americans in all 50 states.

www.ninds.nih.gov

3 8

Frank Shewmaker @frank-shewmaker.bsky.social · Jul 25

Over 3 decades of NIH-supported research enabled the FDA approval of Tofersen (Qalsody®), offering new hope for people with SOD1-related ALS. This breakthrough was made possible by unwavering, long-term societal commitment!
Timeline here: www.ninds.nih.gov/about-ninds/...

Tofersen (Qalsody®) - Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive and ultimately fatal neurodegenerative disorder that affects motor neurons responsible for initiating and controlling voluntary muscle movement and...

www.ninds.nih.gov

5 5

Frank Shewmaker @frank-shewmaker.bsky.social · May 19

Progress with rapid & accessible biomarkers of neurodegeneration! Fujirebio received FDA clearance for a blood assay that predicts amyloid plaque pathology associated with Alzheimer's disease. The assay measures the plasma ratio of pTau217:β-Amyloid1-42.
www.fujirebio.com/en-us/news-e...
🧪

1 3

Frank Shewmaker @frank-shewmaker.bsky.social · May 1

Fantastic series on the genetics of ALS from @thelancetneuro.bsky.social. Understanding these genetic subtypes will help therapeutic development for ALS and FTD.
tinyurl.com/544kx3fu

1

Reposted by Frank Shewmaker

Cure MAPT FTD @curemaptftd.bsky.social · Apr 30

We are so excited for this year's AFTD Education conference! Come meet us in person, this Thursday and Friday. We have a table! See you all there ❤️

@theaftd.bsky.social

#curemaptftd #maptftd #ftd

1 2

Frank Shewmaker @frank-shewmaker.bsky.social · Apr 9

Hi Monica, can I please be added? www.ninds.nih.gov/about-ninds/...

www.linkedin.com/in/frank-she...

1 1

Frank Shewmaker @frank-shewmaker.bsky.social · Apr 8

We need biomarkers to detect TDP-43 loss-of-function in plasma! This will make earlier therapeutic interventions possible for many neurodegenerative diseases. Here's a funding opportunity from AMP ALS if you have a great idea:

fnih.org/wp-content/u...

1

Frank Shewmaker @frank-shewmaker.bsky.social · Apr 2

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A natural experiment on the effect of herpes zoster vaccination on dementia - Nature

Using a natural experiment that avoids common bias concerns, this study finds that the live-attenuated shingles vaccine reduced the probability of a new dementia diagnosis within a follow-up period of...

www.nature.com

1

Frank Shewmaker @frank-shewmaker.bsky.social · Apr 2

What's the easiest thing a 50+ yo could do to decrease their chances of getting dementia? getting the shingles vaccine! ~20% reduction over 7 years. Given the current lack of treatment/prevention options, this is a big reduction.

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/02/h...

Shingles Vaccine Can Decrease Risk of Dementia, Study Finds (Gift Article)

A growing body of research suggests that preventing the viral infection can help stave off cognitive decline.

www.nytimes.com

1 3

Frank Shewmaker @frank-shewmaker.bsky.social · Mar 31

Exciting back-to-back papers in @cp-neuron.bsky.social ! The combined work supports a prion-like mechanism for TDP-43 aggregation and cell-to-cell transfer. Once initiated, aggregated TDP-43 triggers LOF and GOF events.
www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

Seeded aggregation of TDP-43 induces its loss of function and reveals early pathological signatures

TDP-43 pathology characterizes neurodegenerative diseases. Scialò et al. use in vitro-generated and patient-derived TDP-43 aggregates as seeds to show that seed-induced TDP-43 cytoplasmic aggregation ...

www.cell.com

1 3

Frank Shewmaker @frank-shewmaker.bsky.social · Mar 28

A patient was diagnosed with corticobasal syndrome. BUT, neuropath exam showed frontotemporal atrophy with a-synuclein glial cytoplasmic inclusions and neuronal cytoplasmic inclusions. By cryoEM, the a-syn fibers look just like MSA fibers. Authors conclude "FTLD-synuclein" is a rare MSA subtype

cryoEM papers @cryoempapers.bsky.social · Mar 28

Identical Seeding Characteristics and Cryo-EM Filament Structures in FTLD-Synuclein and Typical Multiple System Atrophy pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40135351/ #cryoem

2

Frank Shewmaker @frank-shewmaker.bsky.social · Mar 24

The false morel mushroom is a suspect in this Swiss ALS cluster mystery.

www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

An ‘Impossible’ Disease Outbreak in the Alps

In one tiny town, more than a dozen people were diagnosed with the rare neurodegenerative disease ALS. Why?

www.theatlantic.com

1

Frank Shewmaker @frank-shewmaker.bsky.social · Mar 21

Genetic carriers of a variant of early-onset Alzheimer's disease who were treated for 8 years (avg.) with an amyloid beta-directed antibody called gantenerumab had a 50% reduction in developing cognitive symptoms. 🧪

medicine.washu.edu/news/anti-am...

Anti-amyloid drug shows signs of preventing Alzheimer’s dementia | WashU Medicine

Clinical trial of people destined to develop early-onset Alzheimer’s disease shows eliminating amyloid from brain may prevent symptoms, supports need for confirmatory studies

medicine.washu.edu

2

Frank Shewmaker @frank-shewmaker.bsky.social · Mar 17

Study uses quanterix for NfL and GFAP

Frank Shewmaker @frank-shewmaker.bsky.social · Mar 17

NfL beats GFAP in a head-to-head FTD biomarker competition. Gendron et al. show plasma GFAP and NfL correlate with FTD disorder severity; however, NfL outperforms GFAP as a prognostic biomarker and potential susceptibility marker.

molecularneurodegeneration.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

Comprehensive cross-sectional and longitudinal comparisons of plasma glial fibrillary acidic protein and neurofilament light across FTD spectrum disorders - Molecular Neurodegeneration

Background Therapeutic development for frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is hindered by the lack of biomarkers that inform susceptibility/risk, prognosis, and the underlying causative pathology. Blood gli...

molecularneurodegeneration.biomedcentral.com

1 2 3

Reposted by Frank Shewmaker

Molly Gale (Gale-Hammell Lab) @mollygale.bsky.social · Mar 10

Super happy to announce the latest work from my lab together with Hemali Phatnani @nygenome.org & NYGC ALS Consortium!

We've combined ALS patient profiling (100s!), ML classifiers and matched bulk/single-cell data to dive into ALS Molecular Subtypes

#NIHfundedResearch
www.cell.com/cell-reports...

ALS molecular subtypes are a combination of cellular and pathological features learned by deep multiomics classifiers

O’Neill et al. present a deep exploration of molecular subtypes in ALS postmortem tissues from the NYGC ALS Consortium. Matched bulk and single-cell profiles demonstrate that ALS subtypes are a combin...

www.cell.com

1 13 26

Frank Shewmaker @frank-shewmaker.bsky.social · Mar 7

Everything ALS is developing a study for monitoring and early detection of motor and speech changes. They're looking for participants who are gene carriers of ALS and are currently Asymptomatic.
www.everythingals.org/asymptomatic...

1

Frank Shewmaker @frank-shewmaker.bsky.social · Mar 6

Congrats Martin!

1 1

Frank Shewmaker @frank-shewmaker.bsky.social · Mar 5

Fantastic funding opportunity from AFTD to develop biomarkers for FTLD! $250,000 - $700,000 for 2 years! Better biomarkers will make diagnosis faster and help get patients into clinical trials.

www.theaftd.org/for-research...

1

Frank Shewmaker @frank-shewmaker.bsky.social · Mar 5

Fantastic funding opportunity from @theaftd.bsky.social to develop biomarkers for FTLD! $250,000 - $700,000 for 2 years! Better biomarkers will make diagnosis faster and help get patients into clinical trials. Please apply!

www.theaftd.org/for-research...

FTD Biomarkers | AFTD

See Active FTD Biomarkers Initiative Award Recipients

www.theaftd.org

3

Frank Shewmaker @frank-shewmaker.bsky.social · Feb 26

A reminder of the significance of multi-pathology in neurogenerative disorders. Imaging and fluid biomarkers are needed for clinical trial stratification.

Melissa E. Murray @drneurochic.bsky.social · Feb 25

Excited to see this review of tau and TDP-43 come out, great to work with @lemwisse.bsky.social
@relajoie.bsky.social and Bill Jagust 🤩🎉

alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

2

Reposted by Frank Shewmaker

Nature @nature.com · Feb 23

A two-and-a-half-year-old girl shows no signs of a rare genetic disorder, after becoming the first person to be treated for the motor-neuron condition while in the womb.

https://go.nature.com/41rTube

Rare genetic disorder treated in womb for the first time

Nature - The child, who is now almost three years old, shows no signs of the often fatal motor neuron disease.

go.nature.com

3 28 160

Reposted by Frank Shewmaker

Adrian Isaacs @adrianisaacs.bsky.social · Feb 21

Check out our new review of C9orf72 ALS in @thelancetneuro.bsky.social with Sarah Mizielinska, Rosa Rademakers and others! Was fun to co-write but tough to collate such incredible progress into a one article: authors.elsevier.com/c/1ke765FFzL...

11 20