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- Posted Tuesday December 2, 2014
Lynda Carter — actor, singer, Alzheimer's research advocate — urges public to take test at MindCrowd.org
Famous for Wonder Woman character, Carter stars in video to help reach goal of 1 million participants in Alzheimer's study
PHOENIX, Ariz. - Dec. 2, 2014 - Lynda Carter,
the singer-actress famous for playing Wonder Woman, urges everyone
to take the MindCrowd.org test, a key element of a
1-million-person Alzheimer's disease study led by the Translational
Genomics Research Institute (TGen).
About 5 million Americans have Alzheimer's, a disease caused by
dying brain cells that that rob individuals of their memory.
"This simple 10-minute study may provide clues to the genetics of
this disease, and insights that offer hope for new treatments,"
says Carter in a new 3-minute video promoting the MindCrowd
project.
"I've taken this test. It's really easy, and kind of fun. So, I'm
asking people of all age groups to join me and take the test. Help
us fight Alzheimer's," says Carter, whose mother suffered from
Alzheimer's. "It's a devastating disease."
The game at MindCrowd.org presents pairs of words that the
test-taker must try to remember. The entire game takes less than 10
minutes and the participants get to see how they compare to others
who played the game. Participants can decide to remain entirely
anonymous or can provide their contact information privately to the
researchers so that they can be contacted for future
research.
The test is not a diagnostic to see who might have Alzheimer's.
Rather it is a test to assess different levels of performance in
individuals with healthy brains.
"Understanding how the brain functions in a healthy person, we
believe, will inform us about what goes wrong during Alzheimer's,"
says Dr. Matt Huentelman, an Associate Professor in TGen's
Neurogenomics Division and Principal Investigator for
MindCrowd.
Representatives of this 1st Phase of the MindCrowd study will be
invited to participate in a 2nd Phase, said Dr. Huentelman, in
which researchers hope to discover what drives the differences in
varying levels of performance among individuals with healthy
brains.
But first: "We really need 1 million people. We want to find that
5 percent of the population who really perform fantastically well
on our test. And we want to be able to compare them to the people
in the middle, and the people who don't do so well," said Dr. Lee
Ryan, a MindCrowd project researcher at the University of Arizona,
where she a Professor in the UA Psychology Department.
"We have a different genetic make-up; a different history. We live
in different environments. And all these things can impact our
brain," said Dr. Betty Glisky, another MindCrowd project
researcher, and a Professor and head of the UA Psychology
Department.
Carter says that, after individuals take the test at MindCrowd.org, they should encourage all
their friends and family to also take the test.
To see her new MindCrowd video, go to the MindCrowd Facebook page
at http://on.fb.me/1vhDcN4.
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About TGen
Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) is a Phoenix,
Arizona-based non-profit organization dedicated to conducting
groundbreaking research with life changing results. TGen is focused
on helping patients with cancer, neurological disorders and
diabetes, through cutting edge translational research (the process
of rapidly moving research towards patient benefit). TGen
physicians and scientists work to unravel the genetic components of
both common and rare complex diseases in adults and children.
Working with collaborators in the scientific and medical
communities literally worldwide, TGen makes a substantial
contribution to help our patients through efficiency and
effectiveness of the translational process. For more information,
visit:www.tgen.org.
Press Contact:
Steve Yozwiak
TGen Senior Science Writer
602-343-8704
[email protected]
