full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Lisa Genova: What you can do to prevent Alzheimer's

Unscramble the Blue Letters

So if you were a scientist trying to cure this disease, at what point would you ideally want to intervene? Many scientists are bittneg big on the simplest solution: keep amyloid plaques from reaching that tipping point, which means that drug discovery is largely focsued on developing a compound that will pveernt, eliminate, or reduce amyloid plaque aiualcmucton. So the cure for Alzheimer's will likely be a preventative medicine. We're going to have to take this pill before we raceh that tipping point, before the cascade is triggered, before we start leaving our keys in the refrigerator. We think this is why, to date, these kidns of drugs have failed in clinical trials — not because the scicnee wasn't sound, but because the people in these tlairs were already smpyoitmtac. It was too late. Think of amloyid puqelas as a lit match. At the tipping point, the match sets fire to the forest. Once the forest is ablaze, it doesn't do any good to blow out the match. You have to blow out the match before the forest catches fire.

Open Cloze

So if you were a scientist trying to cure this disease, at what point would you ideally want to intervene? Many scientists are _______ big on the simplest solution: keep amyloid plaques from reaching that tipping point, which means that drug discovery is largely _______ on developing a compound that will _______, eliminate, or reduce amyloid plaque ____________. So the cure for Alzheimer's will likely be a preventative medicine. We're going to have to take this pill before we _____ that tipping point, before the cascade is triggered, before we start leaving our keys in the refrigerator. We think this is why, to date, these _____ of drugs have failed in clinical trials — not because the _______ wasn't sound, but because the people in these ______ were already ___________. It was too late. Think of _______ _______ as a lit match. At the tipping point, the match sets fire to the forest. Once the forest is ablaze, it doesn't do any good to blow out the match. You have to blow out the match before the forest catches fire.

Solution

  1. amyloid
  2. prevent
  3. kinds
  4. science
  5. betting
  6. accumulation
  7. symptomatic
  8. plaques
  9. trials
  10. reach
  11. focused

Original Text

So if you were a scientist trying to cure this disease, at what point would you ideally want to intervene? Many scientists are betting big on the simplest solution: keep amyloid plaques from reaching that tipping point, which means that drug discovery is largely focused on developing a compound that will prevent, eliminate, or reduce amyloid plaque accumulation. So the cure for Alzheimer's will likely be a preventative medicine. We're going to have to take this pill before we reach that tipping point, before the cascade is triggered, before we start leaving our keys in the refrigerator. We think this is why, to date, these kinds of drugs have failed in clinical trials — not because the science wasn't sound, but because the people in these trials were already symptomatic. It was too late. Think of amyloid plaques as a lit match. At the tipping point, the match sets fire to the forest. Once the forest is ablaze, it doesn't do any good to blow out the match. You have to blow out the match before the forest catches fire.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
amyloid plaques 8
amyloid beta 6
scale arm 3
called amyloid 2
janitor cells 2
amyloid plaque 2
plaque accumulation 2
cell death 2
tipping point 2
neural plasticity 2
cognitive reserve 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
amyloid plaque accumulation 2

Important Words

  1. ablaze
  2. accumulation
  3. amyloid
  4. betting
  5. big
  6. blow
  7. cascade
  8. catches
  9. clinical
  10. compound
  11. cure
  12. date
  13. developing
  14. discovery
  15. disease
  16. drug
  17. drugs
  18. eliminate
  19. failed
  20. fire
  21. focused
  22. forest
  23. good
  24. ideally
  25. intervene
  26. keys
  27. kinds
  28. largely
  29. late
  30. leaving
  31. lit
  32. match
  33. means
  34. medicine
  35. people
  36. pill
  37. plaque
  38. plaques
  39. point
  40. prevent
  41. preventative
  42. reach
  43. reaching
  44. reduce
  45. refrigerator
  46. science
  47. scientist
  48. scientists
  49. sets
  50. simplest
  51. sound
  52. start
  53. symptomatic
  54. tipping
  55. trials
  56. triggered