UCLA scientists have developed the only currently available in vivo method to measure NFTs and of the fibrillar tau deposits in the brain. This discovery was led by Dr. Jorge Barrio (Molecular and Medical Pharmacology), Dr. Gary Small (UCLA Center on Aging, Aging and Memory Research Center at the Semel Institute at UCLA), and others, working in the UCLA PET scan program. They sought a way to directly measure the physical evidence of Alzheimer's disease - the abnormal amyloid brain protein deposits including amyloid plaques and tau NFTs- in the living patient. A key to the discovery was the realization that the internal environments of these abnormal proteins were hydrophobic, that is, less friendly to water than to fat. Dr. Jorge Barrio synthesized a new group of compounds that thrived in these hydrophobic environments, and these molecules passed easily from the blood stream to brain tissues.