‘The awesome power of yeast’ in Alzheimer’s disease research

The difficulties in performing experimental studies related to diseases of the human brain have fostered a range of disease models from highly expensive and complex animal models to simple, robust, unicellular yeast models. Yeast models have been used in numerous studies to understand Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathogenesis and to search for drugs targeting AD. Thanks to the conservation of fundamental eukaryotic processes including ageing and the availability of appropriate technological platforms, budding yeast are a simple model eukaryote to assist with understanding human cell biology, offering a platform to study human diseases. This article aims to provide insights from yeast models on the contributions of amyloid beta, a causative agent in AD, and recent research findings on AD chemoprevention.