Word: precursor
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...fist bump's precursor, the low- and high-fives, originated in the 1950s, again mostly among athletes, who deemed handshakes too muted and formal for celebrating teamwork and triumph. The 1980s are generally regarded as the heyday of the high-five, though the gesture has enjoyed a revival of sorts in recent years - especially among Gen-X parents and their offspring. Modern-day high-five enthusiasts have even created a cellphone version: Callers high-five their phones (slap the speakers) or simultaneously type...
...Just as the UC improved upon the short-lived Student Assembly, its immediate precursor, student governance at the College has come a long way since the first batch of UC representatives were elected in the fall of 1982. Since then, the UC has slimmed down, changed its organization, and gained new levels of credibility...
...north pole before -200 F winter temperatures hit the region and threaten to freeze the instruments. But Phoenix is designed with a longer, six-to-eight-month stay in mind, so hopes are high that the probe will not only find frozen water but will also serve as a precursor to later missions seeking evidence of microscopic organic life. Which means that NASA, like Frosty, will probably be back again someday...
...stems from genetics. There's a particular protein that's made in people with Alzheimer's - which is made from a protein that all of us make, the amyloid precursor protein. [In people with Alzheimer's] that precursor protein is clipped by enzymes in the wrong place, and begins to form these little toxic parts that aggregate [in the brain] and eventually form fibrils and plaques that are the main pathologic feature of Alzheimer's disease. It's not clear why this happens exactly, and a lot of people have been studying it pretty hard. It's also not clear...
Drug discovery work is going on right now, mostly in two directions. One is to block these enzymes that cut the precursor protein in the wrong place, so that the plaque-forming bits of the protein aren't formed. And the other is to think of ways, probably [having to do] with the immune response, to break up the aggregated protein bits once they do form...