Alzheimer's is one of our biggest public health problems, and it's one of the few chronic diseases without a major treatment to cure or even slow it down. According to Dr. Stephen Salloway, the Martin M. Zucker Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior and associate director of Brown’s recently launched Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research, it threatens our health economy and the vitality of the aging population.

“I'd put it in the same magnitude, or at least approaching that, of climate change,” he says. “We know it's coming, and we have to do something about it.”

Timing is everything

Alzheimer's research is largely focused on prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment to slow its progression. Thanks to a number of scientific advances, many of them made at Brown, researchers can now detect changes in the brain years before memory loss occurs. These discoveries set the stage for even more impactful research, and that is what Brown hopes to do at the Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research.

“Brown is in such an amazing situation right now with a tremendous infusion of resources and a focus on trying to protect the brain and allow for healthy brain aging,” says Karen Furie '87 MD'90 RES'94 F'95, P'19 MD'23, chair of neurology at The Warren Alpert Medical School and the Samuel I. Kennison, M.D., and Bertha S. Kennison Professor of Clinical Neuroscience. “One of the most frightening things patients tell us repeatedly is that they're afraid they're going to lose their capacity to think, to read, to make decisions, to be independent. It's more frightening than something like a heart attack. Being able to leverage the incredible brain power and research infrastructure that Brown affords gives us such a head start in trying to make a difference in this truly frightening disorder.”

Over the past few years, the National Institutes of Health has dramatically increased funding for Alzheimer's research because they recognize the magnitude of the problem. One of their initiatives is to involve people from other fields who haven't been working on Alzheimer's but have a technique that could be applicable to the problem. Providing funding for that type of transition and translation is really smart, says Salloway.

“That's going to accelerate the field and provide incentive for more people to work on drug discovery and development for Alzheimer's.” One of the things Salloway is excited about is the potential the center has to bring people together for that purpose.

Read the full story on the Brown Alumni & Friends website.