K. G. Jebsen Centre for Alzheimer’s Disease

The Centre will bring together leading experts on Alzheimer’s disease with backgrounds in basic, translational and clinical research – from university and hospital – in a united front against the disease.

Alzheimer’s disease normally first attacks a tiny brain structure called the entorhinal cortex. Today we know that a shrinking entorhinal cortex indicates a bad prognosis. This is where brain cells start to die in Alzheimer’s disease – decades before the disease has escalated to a level of functional decline/degeneration that is noticeable in daily life. The cause of Alzheimer’s disease is not known yet, nor why the cells in entorhinal cortex are especially vulnerable.

Norway is at the international frontier in knowledge about the entorhinal cortex. Since 1996, The Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience has studied the brain ’s cells and networks, and the brain functions that emerge from this anatomy. We know a lot about the cell types that are found here, where they are located, who they talk to, and what tasks they solve.

The entorhinal cortex holds, together with the neighbouring hippocampus, our sense of place, and experienced time, and our memory. Dysfunctions in these higher cognitive functions are the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease. Losing one’s way while on familiar ground; experiencing difficulties with time and sequence of events; and after some time forgetting experiences one would normally have remembered.

The centre activities span from basic research in rats and mice to clinical research in humans. Each step, from the lab to the patient, is quality assured with what is called translational research. Here, promising basic research results on healthy brains are translated to brains that have been affected by Alzheimer’s disease, and the most significant findings from human brain disease are translated into animal models for testing before findings are reintroduced to humans.

Ingress photo: Edvard I. Moser, fotograf TiTT Melhuus / Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience