Published in:
01-12-2012 | Obituary
A life dedicated to Alzheimer’s disease research: in memory of Inge Grundke-Iqbal (1937–2012)
Published in: Acta Neuropathologica | Issue 6/2012
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Alzheimer’s disease (AD) was first reported 106 years ago, but until the 1980s, little was known about the underlying disease mechanisms. Modern AD research had been driven mainly by two milestone discoveries made in the 1980s: (1) identification of amyloid β peptide as the major component of amyloid plaques and its precursor protein, and (2) identification of hyperphosphorylated microtubule-associated protein tau as the building block of paired helical filaments (PHFs)/neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs). On 22 September 2012, the AD field lost a pre-eminent figure—Inge Grundke-Iqbal—who discovered hyperphosphorylated tau in Alzheimer PHFs/NFTs. …