Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello!
My classroom and I have been assigned to do a project for our local science fair and I am interested in Alzheimer's Disease.
I would like to know if Alzheimer's Disease can be detected before someone even gets it? Can it be gentically tested? Can a sort of home kit be created to detect it?
I would really appreciateany suggestions!
Thank you for taking your time and reading my post.

Hi Meli1795,

It's great to hear that you are pursuing a topic in which you are interested! I don't know the details about detecting Alzheimer's Disease, but I do know that there is a genetic component to it (meaning that people are more likely to get it if their relatives did). They have also identified certain genes that are associated with the disease, such as the APOE epsilon4 allele. I think you may need to do some research to find out the answers to your questions.

Here are some resources to get you started:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001767/
http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_w ... eimers.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alzheimer%27s_disease (Note that I would use this for the references listed at the bottom of the article.)
http://www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers/publi ... fact-sheet

You will be able to find much more information when you do your own search!

I also found a web site with some project ideas related to Alzheimer's:
http://www.juliantrubin.com/fairproject ... sease.html

I hope this helps. Please post again if you have more questions.

Heather

Thank you very much Heather! I really appreciate your help