Kristin Myers, a mechanical engineer, and Dr. Joy Vink, an OB-GYN, both at Columbia University, have learned that cervical tissue is a complicated mix of material.

The results offer new hope for human patients and their families waiting for an Alzheimer’s cure, said Ottavio Arancio.

“During the wintertime, people notice that they’re lethargic,” said Dr. Ravi Shah, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center.

In the early 1990s, Mann and Arango discovered that depressed patients who killed themselves have subtle alterations in serotonin in certain regions of the brain.