 Massachusetts leading the way in the fight against Alzheimer's disease. The state is the first in the nation signing onto a program with the Alzheimer's Association. And here at Boston University, researchers already hard at work studying the disease and helping those affected. Alzheimer's disease was detected over a hundred years ago. Alzheimer's and dementia, the deficits that people have are uniquely human. But only in the past 30 years have researchers been making significant findings. There is research in terms of detecting the disease, biomarkers. There's research in terms of genetics, trying to figure out the underlying etiology genetically and then how that implicates pathophysiology. And then there is therapies. The sixth leading cause of death in America, it is the only one that still has increasing mortality rates. We're in the mecca really for research in Boston, there's so many great institutions that are here. 30 centers nationwide focus on Alzheimer's research and one of those is right here at Boston University. The Alzheimer's Disease Center runs a number of programs and studies to learn more about this mysterious disease. In the last 10 years we have become much better at detecting it. And until recently it was impossible to diagnose until after death. According to the Alzheimer's is the accumulation of the proteins amyloid and tau. It is very interesting to see the interplay between these two proteins to see how they induce neuronal cell death and dementia. And the shrinkage of the hippocampus which holds much of our memories. These signs and changes can be detected in the brain up to a decade before anyone notices outright symptoms. And this is very important to identify that this is early because like cancer and heart disease like any other disease the earlier we intervene the better the outcome. So who is at risk? Everybody is at risk of Alzheimer's disease there isn't any population that's excluded. The most important risk factor of course to get out of this age but there is nothing we can do against it right? The research suggests that certain people may be at higher risk than others. Genetics and the level of education have been two consistent factors. The biggest question to researchers are we close to a cure? It might be completely impossible to find a cure because a cure means stopping the disease altogether. But this is a disease of aging and a disease that occurs at the end of life. And if our therapy could delay slow down the disease process by five or ten years that would have huge implications. Dr. Stern's message to those eager to help? Only way we can move things forward and to move things forward quickly and to come up with good treatments and good ways of diagnosing it early is to have people participate in research and every single center around the country that does research in Alzheimer's is aching for people to participate. Researchers at the ADC still saying there's a lot to be done to slow down this epidemic.