The then-groundbreaking study in question, published in Nature in 2006 and lead authored by Sylvain Lesné, experimented with memory impaired older mice and concluded that "memory deficits in middle-aged mice" are caused by the accumulation of clumps of a specific amyloid protein, Aβ*56.
That led Schrag to investigate the influential study that was at the heart of it all.
But don't just take Schrag's word for it.
Science recruited several experts and conducted a 6-month investigation following up on Schrag’s findings, and their conclusions were similarly damning: they found that the influential study and over 70 others authored by Lesné are now suspect, with some cases of image manipulation being "shockingly blatant," according to an expert in the report.
With as many as 5.8 million Americans suffering from Alzheimer's — a number which is expected to triple to 14 million by 2060, according to the CDC — the investigation could represent a disastrous setback in just about every way you can frame it: in human lives, money, and time.
