Kelvin Lee, along with Norman Relkin, clinical neurology associate professor at Weill Cornell Medical College; and researchers Erin Finehout, Ph.D. '05, Zsofia Franck and Leila Choe have discovered that Alzheimer's is identifiable through a specific pattern of proteins, a "bar code," found in cerebrospinal fluid, or CSF.
Their findings are a culmination of research efforts involving both neurology and engineering on Cornell's two campuses that began in 1999.
The researchers discovered a panel of 23 proteins specific to the neurodegenerative disease when comparing CSF samples from a group of patients suffering from Alzheimer's, with samples from a control group of asymptomatic patients and patients with other forms of dementia. The discovery holds promise for developing a diagnostic test for Alzheimer's.
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