Vivian Cheung was awarded the 2025 Roger Ackerman Memorial Grant by the Coins for Alzheimer’s Research Trust (CART) Fund. The $500,000 award, raised by Rotary Clubs around the country and given annually in honor of CART’s founder, will fund Cheung’s research toward developing an RNA-based therapy for Alzheimer’s disease.

“Most available treatments for Alzheimer’s disease focus only on symptoms,” Cheung said. “My team is pursuing a different approach to target a primary genetic cause of the disease.”

Cheung, the William Rogers Provost's Professor of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry, is an international expert in the study of RNA, the single-stranded nucleic acid that controls how genes are expressed. She arrived at Brown in 2024, an important addition to both the university’s new RNA Center and the Center for Alzheimer's Disease Research. 

Recently, her lab discovered the RNA molecule that controls how the APOE gene is expressed, an important breakthrough in Alzheimer’s disease research. The APOE4 variant of the gene is associated with elevated risk of the disease. 

Through the new grant, Cheung and her team will test a two-part treatment designed to lower APOE4 levels in brain cells. Working in human brain cells grown in the lab, they will use RNA-based tools to shut down the molecule responsible for APOE4 production and block any remaining APOE4 from being made. Cheung noted that the treatment, which does not alter DNA, preserves the APOE variants that play important roles in the brain.

“If we’re successful, this work will provide critical proof of concept to advance the development of the first therapeutic to target the major genetic cause for Alzheimer’s disease,” Cheung said. “My lab is very grateful to the Rotary Club CART Fund for its support.”