The Alzheimer’s Association® has awarded its largest-ever research grant – nearly $4.2 million over four years – to the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer’s Network-Therapeutic Trials Unit (DIAN-TTU) to enable the program to move forward more quickly with innovative drug and biomarker trials in people with genetically based, young-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
DIAN-TTU is an international network, established by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health, that brings together 11 research centers to conduct the first ever clinical trial testing of experimental drug therapies within a global network of individuals who have a rare form of Alzheimer’s disease, but have not yet experienced the onset of symptoms. Research suggests that certain brain changes occur years before actual Alzheimer’s symptoms are detected. This pioneering clinical trials infrastructure is studying these changes in people who carry an Alzheimer’s disease mutation.
DIAN will explore whether the early identification of Alzheimer’s and an intervention during this interval could delay or even prevent Alzheimer’s in the shortest time frame that has ever been possible. According to the DIAN scientists, a six-month reduction in the treatment discovery timeline may translate into a reduction of up to 2.5 million cases of Alzheimer’s.
Three generous benefactors of the Alzheimer’s Association; The Johnston Family and the Simmons Foundation of Missouri, the Borman Family of Maine and the Cahn Family of New York have agreed to collectively give $700,000 to the Alzheimer’s Association if we raise this same amount by June 15. All three of these donors feel strongly about the advancement of Alzheimer’s research, and so their generosity is going to support the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network(DIAN), which focuses on a form of Alzheimer’s caused by rare genetic mutations that guarantee a person will develop the disease. People with dominantly inherited Alzheimer’s develop symptoms at a young age – usually when they are in their 40s and 50s, but sometimes as early as their 30s. This form of Alzheimer’s comprises about 1 percent of cases worldwide.
Funding this project will allow us to learn a great deal more about the vast majority of people whose Alzheimer’s develops as a result of complex interactions among their genes, life experiences and other factors.
Please help us raise $700,000 by June 15 so we can take advantage of this challenge and continue to provide help and hope to those affected by Alzheimer’s disease. |
