Utah Professor Thinks She’s on the Cusp of an Alzheimer’s Breakthrough

The discovery opens the door to potentially life-saving treatments for patients with brain tumors and other neurological diseases.

AP/David Duprey
A section of a human brain with Alzheimer's disease. AP/David Duprey

Dr. Donna J. Cross, a professor at the University of Utah with a doctorate in neuroscience, thinks she may be on the verge of a breakthrough on Alzheimer’s after she repurposed a cancer drug that caused a “complete reversal” of cognitive decline in mice.

Dr. Cross found that a small dose of a chemotherapy drug called Paclitaxel might be capable of repairing injuries, whether caused by pathology or by trauma, to the human brain.

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