SAN DIEGO, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Dr. Leon Thal, a leading proponent of new therapies for Alzheimer's disease, died in a plane crash near Borrego Springs, Calif. He was 62.
Thal, a University of California-San Diego professor, was an avid flier, the Los Angeles Times said. The plane crash occurred Saturday.
Thal's fascination with Alzheimer's disease began 30 years ago when he focused on the role of the chemical transmitter acetylcholine in learning and memory. In 1983 he published some of the first evidence that memory could be enhanced in Alzheimer's patients by inhibiting production of a brain enzyme called cholinesterase.
This provided the basis for the first approved drug to stall the progression of Alzheimer's.
Since 1994 he had also headed the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study, a consortium of 80 clinical sites in the United States and Canada.
He is survived by his wife, Donna Thal, a professor emeritus at San Diego State University.
