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Dr. Creighton “Tony” Phelps will retire later this month after nearly 30 years at the National Institute on Aging, the NIA recently announced.

Officially, Phelps is the deputy director of the Division of Neuroscience, but he is best known as director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Centers (ADC) program, of which the Penn Memory Center is a partner organization.

“It’s about more than just how many centers he’s helped launch,” said Dr. Eliezer Masliah, director of the Division of Neuroscience, in the NIA announcement. “He has built a wonderful relationship with each and every center. ADC staff really trust Tony and value his feedback. He’s been an invaluable asset that we, as well as the centers in particular, will truly miss.”

NIA director Dr. Richard Hodes said Phelps’ impact can be felt across the entire field of Alzheimer’s research.

“Building and strengthening some of NIA’s flagship research programs and refining how we define Alzheimer’s disease, he has helped usher in a new era of Alzheimer’s disease research,” he said.

The Penn Memory Center and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) are teaming up for a program that pairs volunteers with CHOP patients and other children in the community.

Volunteers will work with children on a range of activities including reading, creating art, engaging with music, and playing with children of a variety of ages.

This program is being piloted at the South Philadelphia Community Health and Literacy Center, which is located at 1700 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA. This is the home of the CHOP Care Network (South Philadelphia), The Philadelphia Free Library, and the DiSilvestro Recreation Center.

Volunteers must be able to volunteer for at least 90 minutes once a week, provide immunization records (MMR, Varicella, Tdap, Influenza, and PPD/TB), obtain Child Safety Clearances (provided and paid for by CHOP), and attend a short CHOP Volunteer Orientation and training session.

For more information, please contact Megan Fucci at (215) 614-7612 or megan.fucci@uphs.upenn.edu.

Tangled up brain fibrils made up of a rogue protein known as tau are the hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) that likely hold the key to treatments, making them of great interest to researchers. Mimicking the formation and spread of these tangles in animal models with greater accuracy allows scientists to better investigate new therapies to stop or slow their spread.

A new animal model developed at Penn Medicine using tau tangles isolated from the brains of Alzheimer’s patients rather than synthetic tau tangles paints a closer picture of the tau pathology in the AD brain, researchers from the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research (CNDR) at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania reported in the print issue of the Journal of Experimental Medicine.  Seeding normal, wildtype mice with the highly potent Alzheimer’s brain-tau (AD-tau) protein induced damaging tangles in their brains for study, mirroring a more realistic progression of tau tangles seen in AD patients’ brains.

Violist Rimbo Wong knows the stereotype — that classical music is for an exclusive audience — but, working with the Penn Memory Center, she hopes to shatter it.

The ArtistYear fellow from the Curtis Institute of Music is spending a year in service to the Philadelphia community with what she calls “Project Home.” She will bring classical music into the homes of Penn Memory Center patients who have Alzheimer’s disease or other types of cognitive impairments.

ArtistYear Fellow Rimbo Wong from Penn Memory Center on Vimeo.

Former Penn Memory Center intern Alison Lynn has joined the team as a full-time social worker.

As assistant director of care programs, Lynn will assist Felicia Greenfield, director of clinical research operations and care programs, in all aspects of psychosocial support including but not limited to patient and caregiver education and counseling, caregiver classes, support groups, Memory Cafés and other PMC programs, and supervision of social work interns.

Lynn will also coordinate The NACC Study, specifically with participant recruitment, scheduling, and assessments.

“I’m delighted that Alison accepted the offer,” Greenfield said. “She possesses keen clinical and excellent coordination skills that make her an ideal fit for this role.”

Emily Cardin was suspicious the moment she first learned about “Richard.”

Her mother thought he was “The One.” The wealthy British businessman from Match.com was deeply religious, courteous, and gentlemanly. He also promised that he could care for her, financially, after his trip to Africa. It didn’t sit well with Cardin, who warned her mother that it could be a scam.

Despite Cardin’s warnings, her mother sent more than $60,000 to Richard for his hospital bills. But Richard wasn’t in the hospital, nor was he on vacation. He was nothing more than a character invented by a group of Nigerian scam artists.