Secret Science Club: Neuroscientist Gregory Petsko

Secret Science Club & the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation present the “2015 Lasker Public Lecture in Honor of Al Sommer” with Neuroscientist Gregory Petsko.

WARNING… the year is 2050… your brain is undergoing malfunction… memory evacuation will begin in 5…4…3… memory evacuation now in progress. No new memories can be stored.

Sound like a bad sci-fi plot? You may as well quit worrying about the Zombie Apocalypse. What’s really coming is a massive collision between the human brain and America’s changing demographics. As the population ages, we’re facing a tsunami of neurodegenerative diseases, and the incidence of Alzheimer’s is projected to double. Yikes.

To prepare for (and possibly change) this brain-boggling future, neuroscientist Gregory Petsko is researching the mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative conditions and working to develop new drugs. He asks: What’s the connection between Alzheimer’s, ALS and Parkinson’s? What treatments are being investigated? Why do some very elderly people NOT get Alzheimer’s? Are there scientifically proven ways of improving and protecting our cognitive health?

The Mahon professor of neurology and neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medical College and director of the Appel Alzheimer’s Disease Research Institute, Gregory Petsko writes frequently about science and culture, and has been a featured scientist at TED and TEDMED, and on PBS’s NOVA.

This edition of the Secret Science Club is sponsored by the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation. The Foundation works to foster the prevention and treatment of disease and disabilities by honoring excellence in basic and clinical science, educating the public, and advocating for support of medical research. Yeah!