Anchor With Alzheimer's Visits Columbia Lab Hunting for the Disease's Origin

A Reporter Living the Story He's Covering

Bill Ritter stepped down from the Channel 7 Eyewitness News anchor desk in June 2026 after his diagnosis with early-stage Alzheimer's, and while fighting the disease, he is now reporting on a condition that afflicts countless families. His first major assignment in that new role took him somewhere deeply personal — the laboratories of Columbia University, where scientists believe they may be on the verge of cracking the code on what actually starts Alzheimer's in the first place.

Ritter, a longtime Eyewitness News anchor, announced he was stepping away from anchoring after being diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer's. He said he decided to share his diagnosis live on-air to "be honest" with viewers and to raise awareness about Alzheimer's disease. Now, rather than walking away from journalism, he's channeling his diagnosis into a mission — and his visit to Columbia is the first stop.

The Search for Where It All Begins

Scientists understand a lot about what Alzheimer's looks like in the brain, but they don't fully understand what starts and drives the disease. Doctors at the Alzheimer's Research Center at Columbia are working to pinpoint exactly where the disease begins and how it progresses. Dr. Scott Small is the director of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at Columbia University, where he is the Boris and Rose Katz Professor of Neurology.

Small describes Alzheimer's as "a very slowly progressive disorder," and notes that "by the time we typically get to see the brain, it's hard to really piece together and isolate the key source." His team has now identified what they believe is the first cellular structure to fail. Small calls it the endosome, describing it this way: "Think of the cell as a complex train track system — this is Grand Central Station, and that is the organelle defective first and foremost in Alzheimer's." Conceptually, this represents quite a different model than the amyloid hypothesis, the long-standing theory of Alzheimer's disease pathology.

From Mice to Human Brains — and Toward a Drug

That work connects to Small's colleague Dr. Yasir Qureshi, who works with the brains of both mice and postmortem Alzheimer's patients, analyzing similar abnormalities. "We can design questions based on the mouse studies, and then we can test them in those human brains, similar sections from similar areas that are representative," Qureshi said — checking whether what they find in mice translates to humans.

If the research holds up, Qureshi says, "we'll do many more studies in academia first and then collaboration with industry to see if this can actually be developed into a drug." Some of the lab's therapeutic interventions are already being tested in patients, and Dr. Small has co-authored over 120 articles, with his neuroimaging and molecular work leading to seven patents. The endosomal approach is seen as a promising new frontier precisely because earlier amyloid-targeting drugs largely disappointed in clinical trials.

On the Cusp of Something Big

In the U.S., Alzheimer's disease is the seventh leading cause of death among adults, and millions of people live with the disease, according to the CDC. The scale of that burden makes the Columbia team's optimism feel urgent rather than abstract. Taken together, the research has Small convinced a breakthrough is close. "The home run will be hit, I'm sure of it," Small said. "It may be two years, it may be five years, but we're on the cusp."

For Ritter, the story is no longer something he watches from a distance. He has said he will remain with Eyewitness News in a new role, covering "the rising tide of Alzheimer's, and other similar diseases, including how it's affecting patients and their families." With researchers like Small and Qureshi closing in on the disease's origins — and a new generation of targeted drugs potentially on the horizon — the race to find a cure has never felt more real, or more personal.