The Case for Virus Origin of Neurodegenerative Diseases Is Getting Stronger and More Important
But if I told you this two decades ago, you’d think I’m crazy.
In the 1990s, Dr. Ruth Itzhaki, now an emeritus professor of neuroscience at the University of Machester, often faced disheartening grant rejections. Without the grant money, scientists have no means to fund and conduct their research. No, scientists don’t have the power or freedom to do research on whatever they want. That’s the privilege of the funders.
Why did Itzhaki’s grant applications keep on getting rejected? It’s because of her unconventional insights. The scientific community thought the theory of viruses triggering or accelerating the development of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease (AD) was absurd.
But to be fair, if you tell me an infection I got when I was young could increase my risk of AD when I’m old, I’d be doubtful of it as well.
“In the decades that followed, my research into viruses as a possible cause of Alzheimer’s disease was greeted with much hostility, and almost all my funding applications were refused: a hostility that has continued for 25 years and which has only recently abated, thanks to mounting evidence,” Itzhaki wrote in her piece for The Conversation in…
