George G. Glenner, M.D

George G. Glenner (1928–1995) headed the molecular pathology section and chaired the Department of Medicine and Physiology at the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences at the National Institutes of Health from 1958 to 1980.

In 1982, he assumed a post as research pathologist in the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine. Two years later, Glenner and his assistant, Cai'ne Wong, announced the isolation and identification of beta-amyloid and its connection with Alzheimer's. Their watershed research set the cornerstone for the amyloid hypothesis, the leading theoretical framework for understanding Alzheimer's and the basis of the most promising emerging "disease-modifying" treatments.

Leon J. Thal, M.D.

Leon J. Thal (1944–2007), a visionary in conceptualizing and designing Alzheimer clinical studies, led an unparalleled clinical research effort, including some of the trials that established the most important current symptomatic treatments. Since 1994, Thal headed the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS), an 80-site clinical research consortium in the United States and Canada.

Thal also directed the University of California at San Diego's Shiley-Marcos Alzheimer's Disease Center, established in 1984 as one of the original five centers funded by the National Institute on Aging. In addition, he chaired UCSD's Department of Neurosciences.