OUR APPROACH
is to fund actionable research that will produce, on a timely basis, findings that will play an important role in the quest to find a cure.
OUR FOCUS
JDFAF fund basic research in studies that provide guidance for clinical research by exploring brain function as it relates to Alzheimer's and the causal factors for the disease at the fundamental level.
OUR PROCESS
Our board of directors and scientific advisors lead the selection process of funding promising research that will expedite the finding of a cure, or delaying the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s.
ONGOING OVERSIGHT
Ongoing oversight is provided by an annual detailed written report required of each scientist regarding status of the research. All of the reporting will be shared collectively at the annual consortium.
Joel Kramer, PsyD.
JDFAF STRATEGIC INITIATIVE
Dr Virginia Sturm’s Lab
Since 1983, JDFAF continued to fund innovative scientific and medical research by promising scientists. By 2017, however, the board of JDFAF became increasingly concerned that sufficient funding in the future would be limited from the National Institute of Aging and other funding sources to effectively help the millions of men and women who were developing Alzheimer's disease each year. Our response was to determine how to more effectively support our mission and to develop a strategic initiative whereby all of the Foundation's accumulated funds would be donated immediately to the most promising scientists studying Alzheimer's disease at the top California universities. A related and essential goal was to foster communication and collaboration among the JDFAF research scientists and their teams to further accelerate and discover treatments and potential cures for those suffering with Alzheimer’s and related neurodegenerative diseases.
In 2018, the Strategic Planning Committee of the Foundation began negotiating with UC San Francisco Memory and Aging Center, UCLA Mary S. Easton Center for Alzheimer's Disease Research, USC Keck School of Medicine's Eli and Edythe Broad CIRM Center, and UC Santa Barbara's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center.
Our proposed major requirements included:
grant $1 million dollars to establish permanent endowments for each of 7 chairs at UCSF, 2 chairs at UCLA, 1 chair at USC, and $1 million dollars to UC Santa Barbara neuroscientists;
each institution will match our donation, dollar for dollar;
the Foundation will recommend the scientists to be named as JDFAF chairs;
JDFAF endowed chairs and their research teams will meet at least annually.
Dr Jessica Rexach’s Lab
The overarching goal and function of the annual JDFAF endowed colloquium is to promote and link Alzheimer's research programs across California, so scientists in this field will work synergistically towards developing better and earlier diagnosis, potential treatments and eventually cures for Alzheimer's disease and related neurodegenerative conditions. We granted UC San Francisco’s Memory and Aging Center an additional endowment for oversight for the annual required symposium.
Our primary goal is to disburse Foundation generous contributions as soon as agreements were reached with each of the above institutions. We have accomplished our goal and look forward to our first JDFAF Symposium in October 2020.
Justin Ichida, PhD with his research team
ACHIEVEMENTS
JDFAF has received generous donations and invested over $40 million in basic research focused on Alzheimer’s to over 200 neuroscientists and clinician scientists
JDFAF supported major genetic discoveries of familial early onset in Alzheimer's disease
JDFAF funded the early research stages of Dr. Stanley Prusiner, Chairman of JDFAF's International Scientific Advisory Board, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1997 for his groundbreaking discovery of Prions
In 2020, JDFAF launches a bold transformative Strategic Initiative funding 10 endowed professorships, creates research funds across 4 California universities, and provides an annual synergistic colloquium workshop for finding treatments and interventions for Alzheimer’s disease
THE RESEARCH
Over the last 38 years, the John Douglas French Alzheimer's Foundation has formed and supported cutting edge research through a unique consortium of the best neuroscientists from outstanding universities in California to work together to crack the code of Alzheimer's disease (AD).
Lea Grinberg, MD, PhD
The Foundation continues to fund groundbreaking initiatives—A California Comprehensive Consortium for Alzheimer’s—to gain new understandings and insights into the causal mechanisms leading to Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This consortium, under the direction of distinguished JDFAF Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Bruce Miller, brings together brilliant investigators from UCLA, UCSF, UCSB, Stanford, and USC. With the Foundation’s support, annual meeting will be held to bring the endowed JDFAF professors and their AD research teams to work together.
Through the Consortium, JDFAF funded Drs. Gil Rabinovici, Marilu Gorno-Tempini, and Bill Seeley from UCSF to complete comprehensive and novel cognitive and neuroimaging analyses of 200 patients, designed to better understand the variable pathways attacked by AD, while defining distinctive subtypes of AD, based upon anatomy. Working with these anatomic subtypes, Drs. Dan Geschwind and Giovanni Coppola at UCLA searched the entire human genome for changes in genes that may predispose these patients to dementia.
Aimee Kao, MD, PhD
Dr. Ken Kosik at UCSB determined the patients’ gene expression, while Dr. Tony Wyss-Coray at Stanford studied protein expression patterns in the group. Finally, Dr. Yadong Huang at UCSF converted skin cells from these patients into neurons that are being investigated for genetic and proteomic subtypes and response to specific drugs. These samples are banked and shared with investigators around the world. The samples generated are a resource for scientists who will push forward new understanding of the heterogeneity of AD while simultaneously generating new molecular pathways from which medications will be discovered and tested.
This unique consortium brings together some of the best clinical and basic scientists in the world to break down AD into different subtypes. The overarching hypothesis is Alzheimer's is broken up into distinctive subsets of patients with different causes for their cognitive impairment. It takes a broader but deeper look at AD using techniques never before applied to this complex illness. The Foundation established an endowment to annually bring together the new ten JDFAF endowed professors and their research teams at UCSF, UCLA, USC, and UCSB to brain storm and work closely to continue to discover new ways to treat and to care for individuals living with Alzheimer’s disease.
The John Douglas French Alzheimer's Foundation, with your support, continues to lead in encouraging novel thinking, collaboration and urgency in the effort to find a cure for AD.
