Alzheimer's disease is the "epidemic of our century." That's the opinion of Nilufer Ertekin-Taner, a neurologist and neuroscientist with the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville who is intimately involved in research on the disease. Ertekin-Taner was the lead investigator on a study, the results of which were published online recently in PLoS Genetics, in which she and her co-authors build the case that neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's are primarily caused by genes that are either too active or not active enough, rather than by harmful gene mutations.

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Florida Times-Union by Charlie Patton

Tags: alzheimer's disease, Dr. Nilufer Ertekin-Taner, Florida Times-Union, Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, Neurology, PLos Genetics, Research