CU Anschutz In The News

Michelle Sie-Whitten, who heads the Denver-based Global Down Syndrome Foundation, has big hopes for new research at the University of Colorado, where scientists say they have upended the conventional wisdom that Down is a brain disorder. Instead, they classify it as a malfunction of the immune system. If they’re right, the research could lead to new treatments for the illnesses that often accompany the condition such as intestinal disorders like celiac disease or Type 1 diabetes.as well as other conditions, including Alzheimer’s.

Her family recently donated her brain to the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Huntington Potter, who discovered that the chromosomal abnormality seen in Down Syndrome is also found in people with Alzheimer's disease, told Colorado Matters host Andrea Dukakis that Josephson's brain will be used to help develop treatments for people with Alzheimer's.