In 1991, a team of Duke researchers headed by Dr. Roses and Warren Strittmatter plucked out a gene that they suspected was involved in late-onset Alzheimer's.
Working with Yale University neurologist Stephen Strittmatter, who cloned the Nogo gene, Biogen Idec has created a counterinsurgency protein that acts as a sponge to soak up copies of Nogo and other growth-blocking proteins in the spinal cord before they can bind to the receptor.