Banner Alzheimer’s Institute Awarded $7.1 Million in Grants for Research, New Technology
PHOENIX (June 14, 2010) — Banner Alzheimer’s Institute has been awarded three grants totaling $7.1 million to advance Alzheimer’s disease care and research initiatives.
The grants include $2.6 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the purchase of a new cyclotron and two grants secured by Banner Alzheimer’s Foundation, the philanthropic resource for Banner Alzheimer's Institute. The Foundation grants include $3.5 million from the Nomis Foundation in support of the newly launched Alzheimer’s Prevention Initiative and $1 million from the Ethel and Kemper Marley Foundation to benefit counseling, education and other non-medical support resources for patients and caregivers.
“Speaking on behalf of my BAI colleagues and those who serve on the Banner Alzheimer’s Foundation board of directors, I am both humbled and highly motivated by the significant support provided through these grants,” said Eric M. Reiman, MD, executive director of the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute, director of the Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium, and the lead investigator for the Alzheimer's Prevention Initiative.
“Our mission at BAI is to end Alzheimer’s disease without losing another generation. At the same time, we’re also dedicated to establishing a new standard of care in support of individuals diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and their families. I have no doubt that these generous grants will play a key role in our quest to reach these goals.”
Earlier this year, the Banner Alzheimer's Institute received a highly competitive $6.5 million grant from the NIH to renovate and expand its imaging research facility, thus providing space for two research PET imaging suites, a new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) suite, and a computational image analysis laboratory. Space for the cyclotron and PET radiochemistry laboratory needed to produce a broad range of PET tracers for research studies also will be part of the facility.
The $2.6 million NIH grant will provide funding for a new cyclotron at the imaging research facility. The new cyclotron, a circular particle accelerator weighing more than 100 tons, will replace Banner’s aging device. It will be used to create radioactive elements, which are essential to the field of molecular imaging, a branch of science that strives to visualize, characterize, and measure biological processes at the molecular and cellular levels in humans by noninvasive means. The radioactive agents accumulate at a specific site in the body and emit a signal that can be imaged.
Like the $6.5 million research facility grant, this $2.6 million shared research institution grant is part of $1 billion of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds awarded across the U.S. The NIH and its National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) administers these highly competitive research grants, which are expected to create and sustain jobs, promote scientific advances and improve human health.
The new cyclotron is intended to provide a resource to researchers throughout Arizona. It will support major contributions to research to help better understand the living human brain; the fight against Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, other medical disorders; and the development of improved imaging methods.
Banner Alzheimer's Institute research team is a world leader in brain-imaging research, a major contributor to the Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium, and a catalyst for imaging research around the state. It has introduced researchers from several scientific disciplines to brain-imaging research and forged close working relationships with researchers from each of the state’s biomedical research institutions. The researchers are well known for their contributions to brain mapping; the discovery of brain regions involved in memory, emotion and other human behaviors; and the detection and tracking of brain changes associated with the risk of Alzheimer’s disease decades before the onset of symptoms. They have developed a brain-imaging strategy to evaluate the most promising treatments to prevent Alzheimer’s disease as quickly as possible.
The Nomis Foundation, a European-based private foundation dedicated to improving human life through scientific research, awarded a $3.5 million grant to Banner Alzheimer’s Foundation in support of groundbreaking work with the newly unveiled Alzheimer’s Prevention Initiative. Recently featured in The New York Times, The Arizona Republic and Scientific American, the Alzheimer's Prevention Initiative is being led by Reiman and his Banner Alzheimer's Institute colleague, Pierre Tariot, MD. On behalf of the Alzheimer's Prevention Initiative, Banner Alzheimer’s Institute is collaborating with the Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium and other academic, scientific and industry partners around the world.
The Alzheimer's Prevention Initiative is being launched to conduct pre-symptomatic treatment trials with people at high imminent risk for developing symptomatic dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease. This revolutionary research study will focus targeted clinical drug trials on individuals whose genetic status indicates the highest risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
Banner Alzheimer’s Institute was also awarded a $1 million grant from the Kemper and Ethel Marley Foundation, a private family foundation dedicated to supporting the residents of Arizona. Funds from the grant will benefit the Institute’s Family and Community Services program, a comprehensive resource that assists the families and care providers of those living with Alzheimer’s as they navigate through the continuum of the disease.
The Family and Community Services program provides one-on-one counseling support for caregivers; recreational opportunities through the privately-funded Arts Engagement program that enables patients and their care providers to experience museums, theater productions and musical performances; and educational support from clinicians and physicians trained in Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.
About Banner Alzheimer’s Institute
The Banner Alzheimer’s Institute is a treatment and research facility dedicated to helping patients with memory and thinking problems. It offers clinical care for patients; provides education, referral and support services for family and caregivers; and conducts leading-edge research in clinical trials, brain imaging and genetics studies. The Institute is devoted to finding effective Alzheimer’s disease-slowing and prevention treatments in the shortest time possible. Banner Alzheimer’s Institute is owned and operated by Phoenix-based Banner Health, a nonprofit organization. For more information, visit www.BannerAlz.com
About Banner Alzheimer’s Foundation
Banner Alzheimer’s Foundation, a partner to Banner Health Foundation, secures and stewards charitable contributions to advance Banner Health’s mission to make a difference in people’s lives through excellent patient care. Specifically, contributions to Banner Alzheimer’s Foundation support the nonprofit Banner Alzheimer’s Institute in its mission to end Alzheimer’s disease without losing a generation while setting a new standard of care for patients and families. Banner Alzheimer’s Foundation is supported by the generosity of individuals, corporations and foundations. For more information, visit www.BannerHealth.org/AlzFoundation
About the National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. The activities described in this release are being funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov
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