Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Alzheimer’s disease is a growing burden that has been studied for years without clinical success. Long thought of as a somewhat monolithic neurodegenerative disorder, growing patient data suggests otherwise: every Alzheimer’s patient might be different. To better understand Alzheimer’s disease and identify how it can be treated—or prevented from developing in the first place—preclinical researchers are taking advantage of a variety of different animal models.
Alzheimer’s disease remains untreatable, despite decades of preclinical research to understand it better and find therapeutic targets. New ways of thinking about a variety animal models are rising to the challenge.