“If dementia were a country, it would be the ninth largest country on the planet,” says Dr. Gregory Petsko, noted Alzheimer’s researcher and biochemist at Harvard Medical School. With the already high number of U.S. Alzheimer’s patients expected to more than double by 2050, Petsko is leading the charge against the epidemic with outside-of-the-box research methods, hoping to find ways to prevent the disease and ease the “colossal burden” of its treatment—which amounts to $290 billion a year and immeasurable emotional distress for families. In this episode of What’s Ahead, Petsko shares fascinating insights from his work, promising new directions for dementia research, and crucial ideas for future sources of support.