Unorthodox Alzheimer’s researcher Robert Moir dies at age 58
When science reporters look for researchers to profile, we put a premium on the importance of their work, of course, but an ability to spin telling anecdotes (extra points if beer is involved), and friends who can offer up pithy commentary, also count. As I was deciding whether to write about neurologist Robert Moir’s long years of researching Alzheimer’s disease — and repeatedly getting slapped down for his nonconformist approach — however, something else weighed in the balance: Moir was willing to share documents that shine a light on how the science establishment works. It wasn’t a flattering light.
That dedication to scientific truth above careerism — his openness didn’t endear him to the powers that be — defined his professional life. When he died in the early hours of Friday of glioblastoma at only 58, Moir, an assistant professor of neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, left a legacy of brilliant science: His idea that Alzheimer’s has something to do with microbes in the brain, that amyloid plaques form in defensive response to those pathogens, and that something besides eliminating amyloid is probably our best shot at preventing or treating Alzheimer’s.
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