S2E12 Dennis Selkoe: Changing the Course of Alzheimer’s Disease

In this episode of Let’s Talk About That, Anirvan Ghosh speaks with Dennis Selkoe, one of the scientists whose work helped define the modern understanding of Alzheimer’s disease—and laid the foundation for the first treatments that can alter its course.For decades, Alzheimer’s was viewed as an inexorable disease with no meaningful way to intervene. Dennis helped change that. The conversation traces the arc from the earliest pathological clues—amyloid plaques and tau tangles—to the molecular discoveries that transformed Alzheimer’s from a mysterious clinical syndrome into a biologically tractable disease. Dennis also brings the perspective of a practicing neurologist, describing what it is like to diagnose and care for patients as memory, reasoning, and identity begin to slip away. From biomarkers and early detection to anti-amyloid antibodies, tau targeted therapies, and the possibility of prevention, this conversation explores how far the field has come—and what may lie just ahead. It is remarkable that we now have two FDA approveddisease-modifying anti-amyloid therapies for Alzheimer's Disease on the market — Leqembi (lecanemab) and Kisunla (donanemab) — and it is only the beginning of new medicines that will be available to us in the coming decade.