Last fall, scientists from the University of Minnesota returned from Kentucky with some 600 preserved brains and 439 boxes filled with memories. That's how the world-famous Nun Study of Alzheimer's disease came home to Minnesota, where it first began.
Dr. Kelvin Lim, the project's new lead scientist, knew it was a historic moment. But for him, nothing compared with meeting the nuns who are still alive. Now in their 90s or older, they've been part of this unique research project for more than 20 years. And even as their numbers have dwindled, he discovered, their commitment has not. As one sister recently told him: "This allows me an opportunity to teach even after I die."
Over the past two decades, the landmark study has led to a best-selling book, "Aging with Grace," and several important research findings: that those with well-developed language skills early in life were less likely to develop dementia later on, and that those with optimistic outlooks lived longer.
Today, the University of Minnesota is formally announcing the project's return from the University of Kentucky, where it wound up when the previous director took a new job, and a plan to breathe new life into the study with a sequel -- "Nun Study II" -- to study a fresh wave of recruits.
In a sense, the study has come full circle since it began, in 1986, with volunteers from a religious order in Mankato, the School Sisters of Notre Dame. Since then, it has made headlines around the world with insights on how lifestyle and personality traits are linked to people's risk of dementia.
"It's always been their mission to teach," Lim said of the Sisters of Notre Dame. "They view this science, and their contribution to science, as another way to teach others about aging, about dementia, about life."
Originally, more than 600 elderly nuns from across the country volunteered to let a former University of Minnesota scientist, Dr. David Snowdon, study them for clues to how aging affects the brain. Today, only 52 of the original volunteers are still alive, including six retired nuns in Mankato ages 93 to 102.
They turned their lives into open books and took batteries of tests.