Families and Donors

Persons with Down syndrome (DS) have doubled their life span during the last 30 years, due to advances in medical care. However, because they now live much longer, people with DS develop Alzheimer’s disease to a much higher degree than disomic individuals, and at an earlier age due to genes overexpressed on chromosome 21 (Chr.21). The changes in the brain that occur with age in DS closely resemble the changes you see in the brain of patients with sporadic AD, allowing researchers to draw conclusions from DS research that applies also to the general population. Although there are more than 100 clinical trials for AD in the general population, only a couple of drugs have been tested in the DS-AD population with limited success, making this an unmet medical need for a vulnerable population.  There is a lack of information regarding why people with DS so often are burdened with AD as well. There has been a lack of brain tissue that researchers can study to help find out what is going on.

We need your help here!

If you are interested in participating in research that is meaningful for the entire population with DS, we are here to help you understand what this entails.