Narrator: This is Science Today. Researchers are working on developing a screening test for people with a family history of Alzheimer's Disease. Michael Weiner, a professor of radiology at the University of California, San Francisco says the goal is early intervention.

Weiner: There are a number a number of drugs that have now been shown to slow the progression of Alzheimer's Disease and there are a lot more drugs that are coming along that are being developed by pharmaceutical companies which might be very promising for the treatment of Alzheimer's Disease.

Narrator: Weiner and his colleagues found good results using a standard MRI scan to show the structure of the brain and magnetic resonance spectroscopy, or MRS. This looks for and measures chemicals commonly found in Alzheimer's disease.

Weiner: It's kind of like MRI is, you might say, a map and then MRS would be telling you where all the good restaurants are without the map. But it wouldn't be good if you had a whole list of names of different restaurants if you didn't know where they were located.

Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.