To help meet the urgent need for therapies that will effectively treat or prevent Alzheimer’s disease, the National Institute on Aging (NIA) has launched two new research centers with funding expected to total more than $73 million over the next five years. The Alzheimer Centers for the Discovery of New Medicines are designed to diversify and reinvigorate the Alzheimer’s disease drug development pipeline. NIA is part of the National Institutes of Health.

The centers will provide added infrastructure for developing high-quality research tools and technologies needed to validate and advance the next generation of drug targets for Alzheimer’s disease. Data, research methodologies, and computational and experimental tools will be disseminated openly and free-of-charge to the broader research community—including academia and industry—for use in drug discovery and in research to better understand the complex biology of the disease.

The Accelerating Medicines Partnership-Alzheimer’s Disease (AMP-AD) program’s open-science enterprise, which has provided more than 500 new candidate targets for Alzheimer’s disease, served as the foundation for the new centers.

“Through these centers, NIH will expand the use of open-science and open-source principles to de-risk novel drug targets with the goal of facilitating the development of new treatments for Alzheimer’s,” said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.

With the growing aging population, Alzheimer’s disease is among the greatest public health challenges of the 21st century. It affects an estimated 5.6 million people age 65 and older in the U.S. alone, a number that could rise as high as 14 million by 2050 without effective treatment and prevention. There are few current treatments approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and several recent, late-stage clinical trials testing disease-modifying drug candidates have failed.

“Drug development for Alzheimer’s disease is a challenging, costly and high-risk endeavor,” said NIA Director Richard J. Hodes, M.D. “The launch of these centers marks a strategic step forward in our multi-pronged approach to accelerating discovery and development of treatments and cures for Alzheimer’s.”

The Alzheimer Centers for the Discovery of New Medicines grants were awarded to two multi-institutional research teams with extensive experience in developing and promoting open-access science practices. Each team brings together world-class expertise in data science, computational biology, disease biology, structural biology, assay development, medicinal chemistry, pharmacology and clinical science.

The Indiana University School of Medicine Alzheimer’s Disease Drug Discovery center will be led by Alan Palkowitz, Ph.D., and Bruce Lamb, Ph.D., at Indiana University, Indianapolis, with researchers from Purdue University, West Lafayette. The center will bridge target discovery work done by the AMP-AD program with newly discovered molecules that will be studied for disease-modifying potential in Alzheimer’s disease animal models, specifically those based on human pathology, genetics and translational biomarkers developed by the NIA-supported Model Organism Development & Evaluation for Late-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease Consortium.

The Alzheimer Centers for the Discovery of New Medicines are funded through NIA grant numbers U54AG065187 and U54AG065181.

Volunteers Sylvia Fulton, Gordon Dilger and Louise Dilger were recognized by the California Park and Recreation Society as volunteers with the RSVP Bone Builders program with the 2019 Service Award of Excellence: Champions of the Community award. RSVP Bone Builders is a free osteoporosis exercise and education program offered in all four local cities served by Oxnard’s RSVP program.  Volunteers, who must be age 55 or better, help in all capacities of the program, including as master trainers, classroom instructors and the social support system included in each class. In the past fiscal year, RSVP Bone Builders volunteers served over 14,000 hours, the equivalent of nearly seven full-time employees.

On October 28, the House of Representatives passed the Dignity in Aging Act of 2019 (H.R. 4334), which reauthorizes the Older Americans Act (OAA) – key legislation governing the organization and delivery of critical services for senior citizens throughout the nation.

H.R. 4334 promotes seniors’ ability to live independently in their homes by supplying Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) the necessary funds and resources to effectively serve one of our nation’s most vulnerable populations. OAA’s elder care strategy includes comprehensive programs to deliver meals at senior centers, schools and churches. It also includes care to prevent abuse and exploitation of seniors, provides family caregiver support systems and offers community service employment opportunities.

Specifically, the Dignity in Aging Act eliminates the arbitrary cap on the percentage of funding AAAs can use to provide services to older caregivers raising younger relatives. These provisions will be especially beneficial for Kentuckians where, in the midst of the opioid crisis, many older relatives have taken on the responsibilities of raising children whose parents are not present or are unable to take care of them.

“As the lead Republican on this legislation and the lead Republican on the Education and Labor subcommittee of jurisdiction, it has been a privilege to work on this important, bipartisan legislation on behalf of our nation’s seniors. The increased funding authorized through this bill will aid Kentucky’s Area Development Districts – which serve as the AAAs for the Commonwealth – in their efforts to provide a range of comprehensive services to an increasing population of older Americans. My constituency of seniors are engaged, independent contributors to their communities. This legislation will help them maintain that independence and continue to live active, healthy lives in their homes and communities,” Congressman Comer said.