Alzheimer's disease begins to damage the brain years before the first symptoms appear. Scientists are furiously searching for a way of picking up the devastating disorder in those first stages, in the hope that prompt treatment might slow its progression and perhaps someday, with new treatments, stop it altogether.

Now a California company says that it will soon be able to offer a simple blood test that can detect Alzheimer's disease in its early stages, or perhaps even predict its onset. The test picks up a protein signature in the blood that researchers say is specific to Alzheimer's.

"We appear to be able to detect it about two years earlier than clinicians," says Cris McReynolds, president and CEO of Satoris, based in Redwood City, CA. The company was founded in 2003 to develop and commercialize blood-based tests for Alzheimer's disease.  Read More...