One company already putting such drugs through preclinical testing is closely held Memory Pharmaceuticals, in collaboration with Roche Holding.

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And Columbia professor Eric Kandel , who won the medicine prize in 2000, started New York City-based Memory Pharmaceuticals .

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"To recall something, you recreate it, and that may destabilize the memory afterwards, " says Eric Kandel of Columbia University and Memory Pharmaceuticals.

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Memory Pharmaceuticals has a nicotinic receptor drug for Alzheimer's in midstage trials that is probably a year behind Targacept, figures Lazard Capital Markets analyst Terence Flynn.

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Memory Pharmaceuticals , the closely held biotech firm doing this work, is at the forefront of an intense scientific race to devise the first effective memory-enhancing drug.

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Memory Pharmaceuticals (nasdaq: MEMY - news - people ) has a nicotinic receptor drug for Alzheimer's in midstage trials that is probably a year behind Targacept, figures Lazard (nyse: LAZ - news - people ) Capital Markets analyst Terence Flynn.

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