How an Outsider in Alzheimer's Research Bucked the Prevailing Theory — and Clawed for Validation

Massachusetts General Hospital neurobiologist Robert Moir has struggled with disagreement from the scientific community concerning his theory of a microbial cause for Alzheimer's, reports STAT . His application for a five-year National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant, based on research providing strong data for the notion that beta-amyloid might be a response to microbes in the brain, was repeatedly thwarted by inconsistent assessment of his work. Critics say his difficulty reflects the trend of many scientists in the NIH "study sections" that evaluate grant applications, and those who check submitted papers for journals, fiercely rejecting any alternatives to prevailing explanations. After two years of failed attempts at publishing his findings, Moir's work was accepted and published in 2016 in Science Translational Medicine . Editors described the findings as a "rehabilitation of an amyloid bad boy" which identified "inflammatory pathways as potential new drug targets for treating" Alzheimer's. This, however, has not cleared Moir's path toward an NIH grant. If he and other researchers are correct that beta-amyloid is an antimicrobial, significantly different therapeutic measures than amyloid-destroying treatments may need to be developed.