OBITUARY：Francisco Lopera—经济学人

The intrepid Colombian researcher into Alzheimer's disease died on September 10th，aged 73感恩这位老先生在阿尔茨海默病领域的贡献

知识补充：法蘭斯高·洛佩拉（ Francisco Lopera，1951 年 6 月 10 日 - 2024 年 9 月 10 日）是一位哥伦比亚神经学家，在阿尔茨海默病领域取得了重大发现。他是麦德林安蒂奥基亚大学的教授。他发现了世界上最大的大家庭患有阿尔茨海默病，并对其进行了数十年的研究，确定了他们患病的遗传原因。凭借他的研究，他还获得了2024 年波塔姆金奖，奖金 10 万美元。洛佩拉于 2024 年 9 月 10 日去世，享年 73 岁（竟然是本月去世的！！！从奖金来看不高啊，是不重视吗？还是因为在理论阶段？）

为什么要研究阿尔茨海默：He wept because the old lady, in the last stages of Alzheimer's, stared blankly at them, not knowing who they were. Then and there, Francisco made a vow: when he became a doctor, that was not going to happen to any granny.祖母得了这个病

无法治愈，祖母还是越来越严重：Alzheimer's was incurable. By his count, more than8oo drugs had been tried on it, to no effect...Silently, the patient his grandmother-was being destroyed. First she forgots mall things, then how to cook, then who she was. When dementia set in, she would not even know she had it.But her family would be exhausted and devastated.最苦的是家人啊，最亲的人变成了最陌生的人

有早发病且有遗传性：In 1982 a farm labourer came to the hospital. At 47 he had abandoned work, and his speech was a crazed laugh. Nor was he alone.His father, his grandfather and several aunts had had Alzheimer's too, not in old age but in their 4os and 5os. This was early-onset,and it was hereditary.那说明Francisco Lopera也很有可能会生这个病

遇到的困难：He had been kidnapped by the FARC a few years before, when he was working in the jungly Darien Gap on bat-bites and snake-bites, and was forced to treat a shot guerrilla; lat-er, a nurse working for him was abducted. The more serious effect of the war, for him, was that well-funded medical-research teams in the United States did not want to go to Colombia.真的是用生命在做研究啊，遭遇重重困难，一个是战争，一个是研究团队不想去哥伦比亚，除了哥伦比亚其他地方没有生这个病的病人吗？

取得的进步：But on the evidence of those brains, more than 300 stored in a special bank on campus, he and his colleagues found thathereditary Alzheimer's was linked to a single mutation of the presenilin 1 gene in chromosome 14. Now what he needed to find was another genetic mutation that would hamper the first.发现了与一个基因突变有关，然后开始研究如何阻止这一基因突变

发现两个保护大脑的基因：His work there paved the way to identifying two candidate genes, AP0E3 Christchurch and Reelin-COLBOS, which seemed to have protected the neurons. If a molecule could now be found to inoculate younger adults, it could delay the disease for decades: a cure, or almost so.那就是对于携带早发性阿尔茨海默氏症突变是可以有点对应治疗办法的？

预防最重要：Prevention was his best hope. Besides,hereditary Alzheimer's was a tiny fraction of all cases. In the rest,the cause was unknown. 遗传性的只占很少一部分，大部分未知，看来还是有很长的路走