Mary Sano, Ph.D.

Can Vitamin E Delay the Progression of Alzheimer’s Disease?

Dr. Mary Sano is a professor of psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and Director of Research, Bronx VA Hospital. She has been involved in designing and conducting clinical trials in the areas of Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease and mild cognitive impairment of aging. In 1989 she received the Florence and Herbert Irving Clinical Research Career Award to develop methodologies for the assessment of therapeutic agents in Alzheimer's Disease.

Dr. Sano directed the first Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study multicenter trial of vitamin E and selegiline, treatments that delayed the clinical progression of Alzheimer's disease. In 1998 she received the Veris Award for this study. Her research interests are in clinical trial design and the impact of pharmacological treatments on the functional abilities of individuals with cognitive impairment.

At present she is the director of the Minority Recruitment Core and the chair of the Committee for the Development of Pharmacoeconomics Assessments for the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study. Other areas of interest include the role of depression in cognitive loss and measuring quality of life in disease and aging. Currently she is the national director of the CLASP study to determine if lowering cholesterol will improve Alzheimer’s disease.