Our research efforts have contributed fundamentally to the current medical and scientific understanding of Alzheimer?s disease (AD) and resulted in the initial description of many of the most important symptoms of AD and its characteristic course. These findings are being related to neurologic, physiologic, neuroradiologic, physical and pathologic features as well as to fundamental biomolecular factors. All of these findings are being integrated with the management and treatment of AD in a new science of AD care.We are presently investigating relationships between the clinical markers of AD course and neuropathologic and biomolecular changes in AD. Studies thus far have shown robust relationships between volumetric and neuronal changes in the hippocampus and the evolution of AD described with the Global Deterioration Scale (GDS) and Functional Assessment Staging (FAST). These staging procedures, which resulted from our research, identify the characteristic course of AD in unprecedented detail, e.g., FAST describes a previously neglected latter half of AD. Current studies of the AD course indicate that the GDS and FAST measures can explain approximately three times the variance in temporal course accounted for by traditional measures such as MMSE. Other factors including concomitant illness, quality of care, and genetic factors are likely additional influences on temporal progression and course. Interestingly, in many important and fundamental ways, the progression of AD reverses pattern of acquisition in normal human development, a phenomenon which we have termed retrogenesis?. Because this retrogenic phenomenon applies to cognitive and functional changes in AD, as well as to neurophysiologic and other aspects, the stages of AD can be translated into developmental ages (DAs). The DAs can be wedded with fundamental human needs and capacities and appropriate caveats to formulate a new science of AD management. Fundamental insights into the neuropathologic and biomolecular basis of AD, and associated fundamental treatments, also result from these new retrogenic observations.