How a new kind of vaccine could lead to the eradication of Alzheimer’s

“I have really modest goals. I want to have the largest impact on human suffering of anyone, ever,” says Lou Reese, co-founder of biotechnology company Vaxxinity. He might just pull it off. If everything goes to plan, by 2030 the firm will offer a new drug that will revolutionise our approach to one of the world’s most feared diseases, and may even lead to its eradication.

That disease is Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia, which causes untold pain to people and their relatives. It and other forms of dementia are seen as a ticking time bomb ready to blow up in the brains of an increasingly elderly population.

But now it seems there may be a way to defuse this problem. Vaxxinity, which is based in Cape Canaveral, Florida, is working on vaccines designed to halt the progression of Alzheimer’s or even stop it from developing in the first place. Several other companies are in the same game and the approach is showing great promise. “Society is entering an era in which the unchecked devastation of Alzheimer’s disease is no longer inevitable,” says Dennis Selkoe at Harvard Medical School.

Around 55 million people are living with dementia and that number is projected to rise to about 140 million by 2050, with disastrous consequences for patients, their families and our health and social care systems. In 2021, the World Health Organization estimated that the global cost of dementia …