PureTech turns 200-year-old discovery into a new approach to Alzheimer's, while clinging to controversial amyloid hypothesis
Before MRIs or CT scans, 18th-century anatomist Paolo Mascagni injected his cadavers with mercury. Ever mobile, the mercury coursed through their veins like blood, illuminating the body’s rivers and canals in a silvery contrast that Mascagni could trace upon dissection.
In ornate, da Vinci-esque diagrams, Mascagni sketched the bulk of the body’s lymphatic system: The complex drainage networks that assure immune cells flow to the right place and fluid never builds up in any one spot. That included detailed drawings of the lymphatic system in the brain — whose existence scientists promptly forgot for the next 200 years.
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