Stanford-Based Alzheimer's Disease Research Center To Be Launched

By BRUCE GOLDMAN:

The National Institutes of Health will fund the establishment of an Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The award, totaling slightly more than $7.3 million, will be dispensed over a five-year period.

“This new Stanford-based center will provide a key mechanism by which our exceptional basic-science community can better connect with our translational and clinical neurodegenerative-disease research,” said Frank Longo, MD, PhD, professor and chair of neurology and neurological sciences at Stanford. “Many dozens of faculty will be involved.”

The center will help scientists conduct interdisciplinary research on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, as well as on related disorders. An estimated 5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, and about 300,000 are living with Parkinson’s disease, making these the two most common neurodegenerative disorders nationwide. Moreover, both conditions are rapidly increasing in prevalence. By 2050, the number of Alzheimer’s patients in the United States is expected to reach 13.8 million. The center will home in on common underlying mechanisms occurring in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

The center will also provide educational opportunities for community members, patient caregivers, students and health-care professionals.

Victor Henderson, MD, professor of health research and policy and of neurology and neurological sciences, will direct the center. Tony Wyss-Coray, PhD, professor of neurology and neurological sciences, will serve as co-director. Longo and Jerome Yesavage, MD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, will be associate directors. Michael Greicius, MD, associate professor of neurology, will direct the imaging core of the new center.

To read the entire story, follow this link to Stanford Medicine News Center.

--Stanford News Service

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