the scientists at the palace lexis institute study tissue samples and neurons there are particularly interested in 2 questions what regulates the life cycle of nerve cells in the brain and what might interfere with it and what roles do genes play the researchers found that all timers patients exhibit increased numbers of neurons with genetic abnormalities but is that a cause or an effect of the disease it's still unclear. thomas aren't believes that some people are born with a predisposition for other timers what is certain is that changes occur in the brain 20 or 30 years before the. symptoms of alzheimer's appear in some cases perhaps even earlier. this leads to the question of whether the disease could be arrested at this early stage but how do you detect affected people if they don't display any symptoms. present these are going to be your model for this is where you turn to biomarkers. this is an area of research that seeks to find biomarkers that can help you to identify patients that are particularly at risk of developing this disease. his team came up with a blood test for ra