Aloysius "Alois" Alzheimer - German psychiatrist and neuropathologist and a colleague of Emil Kraepelin. Alzheimer studied at the universities of Aschaffenburg, Tübingen, Berlin, and Würzburg, and received his medical degree from the University of Würzburg in 1887. He is best known for discovering and documenting the first case of "presenile dementia", which Kraepelin later called Alzheimer's disease. Alois Alzheimer died in Breslau at the age of 51 from heart failure, and it is believed that Alzheimer had contracted a streptococcal infection, which had caused him to suffer from rheumatic fever and kidney failure. The following year, Alzheimer spent five months helping mentally ill women before taking up an office at the mental asylum in Frankfurt. Emil Scioli, a well-known psychiatrist, was the dean of the asylum. Another neurologist, Franz Nissl, began working at the same asylum as Alzheimer. Together they conducted research on diseases of the nervous system, specifically the normal and pathological anatomy of the cerebral cortex. Alzheimer was the co-founder and co-publisher of the journal, although he never wrote a book that can be fully attributed to him. While at the Frankfurt asylum, Alzheimer also met Emil Kraepelin, one of the most prominent German psychiatrists of the day. Kraepelin became a mentor to Alzheimer, and the two worked closely together over the next several years. When Kraepelin moved to Munich to work at the Royal Psychiatric Hospital in 1903, he invited Alzheimer to join him. At the time, Kraepelin was conducting clinical research on psychosis in geriatric patients; Alzheimer, on the other hand, was more interested in laboratory work on diseases of the geriatric population. The two faced many challenges involving the politics of the psychiatric community. For example, formal and informal arrangements were made between psychiatrists at the asylums and universities for the reception of cadavers. In 1904, Alzheimer completed his habilitation at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where he was appointed professor in 1908. He then left Munich for the Silesian Friedrich Wilhelm University in Breslau in 1912, where he accepted a position as professor of psychiatry and director of the Institute of Neurology and Psychiatry. His health deteriorated shortly after his arrival at the hospital. Alzheimer died three years later. In 1901, Alzheimer noticed a patient at the Frankfurt center named Auguste Dieter. The 51-year-old patient was suffering from strange behavioral symptoms, including short-term memory loss; these became his obsession for the next few years. Auguste Dieter was a victim of the politics of the time in the psychiatric community; the Frankfurt asylum was too expensive for her husband. Herr Dieter made several requests to have his wife transferred to a less expensive facility, but Alzheimer interfered with these requests. August Dieter, as she was known, remained in the Frankfurt asylum after Alzheimer struck a deal to keep her records and brain after her death. On April 8, 1906, August Dieter died and her medical records and brain were brought to Munich, where Alzheimer was working in Kraepelin's laboratory. In collaboration with two Italian doctors, Alzheimer used Pilschowski's techniques to identify amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. These brain abnormalities became clear definitions of what later became known as Alzheimer's disease. Another hypothesis advanced by Claire O'Brien was that August Dieter was actually suffering from vascular dementia.