So, I've read 2 biology sciency things today. In both cases, the scientific method was at work (YAY!). Researchers were looking as published results and in the first case (the tardigrade genome I mentioned earlier in the week) striking problems were found with the data.
The second paper is more positive for the studies pre-dating it! In this paper from Huded et al., some researchers in India decided to test the National Institute on Aging's criteria for Alzheimer's diagnosis and progression. This requires removal of cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) and testing for a number of known protein biomarkers. Quantification reveals presence and severity of the disease.
Now, there hasn't just been one test on these biomarkers, there have been tons of them. So it would be super weird if they didn't check out properly (or you could blame it on the ELISA assays they were using). But, hey! sometimes you want to verify it yourself, especially if it requires extracting fluid from someone's nervous system!! On diseases that are this nefarious, every data point is going to help. Lets get early detection and drugs on the market, STAT!
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