December 6, 2016 Joshua Grill, PhD, and Aimee Pierce, MD This week, at the Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s Disease (CTAD) meeting in San Diego, we will likely learn more about the recent announcement from Eli Lilly and company that their Phase 3 clinical trial of the monoclonal antibody against the soluble form of beta amyloid, solanezumab, did not demonstrate adequate efficacy to pursue approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Until then, here is what we do know: The drug solanezumab failed, but the trial didn’t. The purpose of the trial was to measure whether solanezumab was safe and…
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December 1, 2016 KCAL9/CBS2 If you missed UCI MIND Gala Co-Chairs, Lucy & Roger Lisabeth, on KCAL 9 last night, tune into CBS 2 Los Angeles tonight at 5pm with Elsa Ramon to hear their powerful story. Learn more about what the Lisabeths and UCI MIND are doing in the fight against Alzheimer's disease here.
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November 28, 2016 60 Minutes Did you hear UCI MIND researcher Dr. Claudia Kawas last night on 60 Minutes? Click here to read the script and learn more.
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Ira T. Lott, M.D. is the Director of the UCI MIND Down Syndrome Program and Professor Emeritus of UC Irvine School of Medicine. While focused on helping people with Down syndrome, Dr. Lott is also expanding knowledge about Alzheimer's disease in the general population. Dr. Lott's work exemplifies the vital collaboration among people with Down syndrome, their families, and the researchers who work with them. We are honored to present him with the 8th Annual UCI MIND Award at this year's Gala. The UCI MIND Award is the Institute’s most distinguished honor bestowed upon an individual who exemplifies the mission…
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Join us in honoring our 2016 Community Leadership Honorees, Linda Young and Burton Young, at A December to Remember Gala on December 3 at the Balboa Bay Resort in Newport Beach. Linda and Burton have worked tirelessly to increase research funding for treatments and a cure for Alzheimer’s disease at UCI MIND. Burton, Principal and Founder, Sperry Equities & Sperry Commercial, has served as chair of the UCI MIND Leadership Council since its inception. His message is clear: private gifts provide leverage and flexibility for researchers to test innovative ideas that will help find treatments, preventions and cures for dementia…
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Elsa Ramon is the weekend evening anchor and weekday reporter for CBS2/KCAL9 and has received four Emmy nominations for her exceptional work in newscasting. Elsa graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a B.A. in English Literature and is a proud Anteater in support of Alzheimer’s disease research at UCI MIND. Elsa recently participated in a behind-the-scenes tour of the UCI MIND research labs seeing for herself the dedication and determination of each and every faculty, staff, and student involved. Elsa’s grandmother suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, which compels and excites her to share with her southern California viewers the exciting…
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Join our community partners, Orange County Aging Services Collaborative and Family Caregiver Resource Center, for a special evening celebrating caregivers.
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Have questions about healthy brain aging, memory loss, or Alzheimer's disease research? Come to an open forum Q&A session on November 3 at The Covington in Aliso Viejo from 5:30-7:30 pm. UCI MIND is bringing a panel of experts to you at no cost. Hope to see you there! Click here to register online or call Kirsten Klein at (949) 824-9475. http://askucimind.eventbrite.com
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Reserve tickets today for the 7th Annual UCI MIND Gala, A December to Remember, on December 3rd at the Balboa Bay Resort in Newport Beach! Toast the holidays with an elegant evening of dining, dancing, and philanthropy that will have a lasting impact. All proceeds will support Alzheimer's research at UCI MIND, OC's only state and federally funded Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. Tickets & Event Information>
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"UCI MIND takes multipronged approach to finding preventions, cures in effort to avert baby-boom crisis..."
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Click to view a message from Dr. Grill!
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Education is essential to help increase awareness of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Join us for our biggest education event of the year next Friday, September 30, at the Irvine Marriott. Click here to learn more and register!
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September 21, 2016, is World Alzheimer's Day! Learn more about Alzheimer's disease on our website and help spread the word about the exciting happenings in Alzheimer's disease research at UCI MIND.
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Research is the key to finding treatments and cures for Alzheimer’s disease and other urgent health problems. If you or someone you know is interested in helping researchers at UCI find cures faster, check out our new online potential participant registry, Consent 2 Contact (C2C)! c2c.uci.edu
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September 1, 2016 Nature A paper published August 31 in Nature, describes that Biogen Idec’s candidate treatment, aducanumab, reduced amyloid-β in the brains of patients with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. Patients receiving the highest doses of the medicine in the Phase IB trial had the largest reductions in brain amyloid and also declined the least in clinical assessments. These are promising results that will require replication in larger clinical trials, which have recently launched, including at UCI MIND. Read the Nature news article about the study here.
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The EARLYBIRD deadline for the research conference is quickly approaching! Register online before September 9 and SAVE! What allows people to live to age 90 and beyond? How does memory loss affect those in their 90’s? How do people remain #dementia-free into their 90’s? The 90+ Study at UCI MIND seeks to address these questions by longitudinally following the oldest-old members of our community, now the fastest growing age group in the U.S. Learn more about this exciting topic with Dr. Maria Corrada-Bravo, Co-Principal Investigator for The 90+ Study, at our upcoming research conference on Friday, September 30 in Irvine. …
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(Steve Wood/Rex/Shutterstock) August 30, 2016 Huffington Post We are deeply saddened by the passing of beloved actor Gene Wilder yesterday. His family confirmed Alzheimer's disease as the cause of death, helping to lift the "veil of stigma about the most common cause of dementia."
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(www.raiznerlaw.com) According to the New York Times, the NFL has stated in federal court documents that, “it expects nearly a third of retired players to develop long-term cognitive problems and that the conditions are likely to emerge at ‘notably younger ages’ than in the general population.” Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a progressive degenerative disease found in people with repetitive brain trauma, such as athletes like football players and boxers. Repetitive brain trauma can cause an abnormal tau protein to accumulate and kill brain cells, even years after trauma stops. Learn more about the association between head trauma and dementia with Dr.…
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Caring for a loved one with dementia poses unique challenges based on the specific diagnosis. Dr. Jill Shapira, a researcher and practitioner in the field of dementia caregiving, will moderate a diverse panel of dementia caregivers, including the wife of a husband with Lewy body dementia, the wife of a husband with frontotemporal dementia, the mother of a daughter with Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease, and the daughter of a parent with Alzheimer’s disease. Do not miss this invaluable discussion with the real experts, the caregivers who live the reality of managing dementia everyday, at our upcoming research conference. Friday,…
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(Dan Steinberg/Invision/AP Images) The brain autopsy of Robin Williams showed signs of diffuse Lewy body disease, a dementia that affects 1.4 million Americans and their families, according to the Lewy Body Dementia Association. Lewy body dementia (LBD) can closely resemble and overlap with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s making it widely underdiagnosed. Some patients start out with a movement disorder leading to a diagnosis of Parkinson’s, then develop dementia and other symptoms of LBD. Others present with cognitive dysfunction that may look like Alzheimer’s initially, but with time, hallucinations, motor impairments and fluctuating attention appear. A third smaller group present first with…
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Did you know that frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is more common than Alzheimer’s disease in people younger than 60 years old? FTD is a cluster of progressive, degenerative brain diseases that result in significant behavior and personality changes, typically before symptoms of memory loss occur. Learn more about FTD with Dr. Howard Rosen from UCSF’s Memory and Aging Center at our upcoming research conference on Friday, September 30 in Irvine. Register online before September 9 and SAVE!
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UC Office of the President July 25, 2016 University of California announces UCI team, led by UCI MIND co-director Dr. Joshua Grill, as a recipient of the UC Cures for Alzheimer’s award. Read more..."Joshua Grill, associate professor in the department of psychiatry and human behavior at UC Irvine, will lead a team to study the effects of high doses of vitamin nicotinamide in reducing tau phosphorylation in patients with Alzheimer’s disease..."
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July 22, 2016 The latest findings from The 90+ Study were recently published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS) by UCI MIND's Szofia Bullain MD, Maria Corrada ScD, Shawna Perry MS, and Claudia Kawas MD. Dr. Bullain will be discussing the article and its findings on Doctor Radio, SiriusXM channel 110 from 2:00-2:30pm PT Monday, July 25. Don't miss this exciting update! Don't have a subscription to SiriusXM? Sign up for a free 30-day online pass and listen online. The show will also be posted here ~48 hours after the show. Read the full paper here.
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Nell Redmond, AP July 20, 2016 USA Today "Nearly 45 years after his last Cup race, Lorenzen hoped he would still make his mark on the NASCAR community. Inspired by Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s decision to pledge his brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation, Lorenzen became the second known driver to make the same decision."
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July 19, 2016 MariaShriver.com UCI MIND Co-Director Dr. Joshua Grill and A4 Study Project Leader Dr. Reisa Sperling work to understand the heavy burden Alzheimer's disease places on women-- and what women can do to help today.
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July 18, 2016 Alzforum The Senate Committee drafted a bill with a $400 million hike in AD research funding last month. The House crafted their version of the bill last Friday. See how their proposal stacks up.
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UCI MIND & Alzheimer's Orange County are excited to announce the 27th Annual Southern California Alzheimer's Disease Research Conference! Nationally-renowned experts will address the latest advances in Alzheimer’s and dementia research across unique populations, such as victims of head trauma and people living with Down syndrome. Join over 400 community members, clinicians, researchers, students, service providers, and caregivers on September 30, 2016 at the Irvine Marriott Hotel. Continuing education credits and discounted student rates are available. Register online today!
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July 13, 2016 HealthCanal Read about Professor David Cribbs' global partnership in developing anti-amyloid-beta & anti-tau vaccines with "promise for both preventive & therapeutic approaches in AD." more>
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"Dear Dr. Grill, My Mom is interested in taking part in a “transparent” preclinical trial on Alzheimer’s disease. As part of the study, she would undergo Positron Emission Tomography, also called a PET scan. Because this is a transparent study, I understand she’ll receive the results of this PET scan. What kind of support should I seek for my Mom if the results show she has amyloid in her brain, a biomarker for Alzheimer’s? Are transparent studies becoming more common for Alzheimer’s disease?" Read Dr. Grill's response here>
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"Dear Dr. Grill, My Mom is interested in taking part in a “transparent” preclinical trial on Alzheimer’s disease. As part of the study, she would undergo Positron Emission Tomography, also called a PET scan. Because this is a transparent study, I understand she’ll receive the results of this PET scan. What kind of support should I seek for my Mom if the results show she has amyloid in her brain, a biomarker for Alzheimer’s? Are transparent studies becoming more common for Alzheimer’s disease?" Read Dr. Grill's response here>
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Washington Post "I believe that Pat died to demonstrate that the day in, day out way we treat people with cognitive decline has to get better. You’d like to think that Pat got the kind of generous, sensitive care that she gave to others. But the fact is, she didn’t always, for the simple reason that not enough of that care exists. We can do something about that." more>
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Join UCI MIND next Tuesday, July 12, to learn about healthy brain aging and Alzheimer's disease prevention, including a monumental new clinical study. Email kleinkm@uci.edu if you would like to register yourself and others. Space and time are limited, so act today! What: A4 Study Information Session When: July 12, 2016 from 10:00-11:00 AM Where: Vivante, 1640 Monrovia Ave, Costa Mesa, CA 92627 more>
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Photo: Mel Evans, AP USA Today June 28, 2016 "About 200,000 Americans suffer from early onset Alzheimer's disease, the condition that took the life Tuesday of legendary basketball coach Pat Summitt at age 64. She was diagnosed with the illness five years ago..." more>
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By Courtney Perks The Orange County Register May 24, 2016 "When Ruth Russi was born with Down syndrome in 1959, her parents were told she would die before her fifth birthday. By the time Ruth turned 50, John and June Russi of Costa Mesa began to prepare for her outliving them." more >
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Congratulations to The 90+ Study team on receiving the 2016 Robert Newcomb Interdisciplinary Team Science Award from the UCI Institute for Clinical and Translational Science (ICTS). This award was established to highlight and honor individuals who have played a formative role in bringing together teams of researchers from diverse, trans-, multi-, and interdisciplinary backgrounds in studies and projects that have advanced biomedical and clinical research. Click here to learn more about The 90+ Study.
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Public Policy Advisor Thursday, April 28, 2016 "Are you 65 years old? If so, your risk of getting Alzheimer’s is 1 in 20. 70 years old – 1 in 10. At 75 years, it narrows to 1 in 5. Frightening – you bet! The extent of this devastating disease is monumental. Alzheimer’s is the 6thleading cause of death in the nation and the only killer in the top 10 with no disease-modifying drugs nor cure." read more >
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Bill Edwards, UCI MIND Leadership Council member and Alzheimer's disease advocate, shares his family's story with UC Irvine Health: Nancy Edwards never met a stranger. “To her, you were a friend she hadn’t made yet,” her daughter Heather remembers. When her personality began to change in 2003, however, the family became concerned. “Her personality got very argumentative. We didn’t know what was going on.” Read more
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Premiers Wednesday, April 13 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings) Alzheimer’s disease strikes at the core of what makes us human: our capacity to think, to love, and to remember. The disease ravages the minds of over 40 million victims worldwide, and it is one of the greatest medical mysteries of our time. Join investigators as they gather clues and attempt to reconstruct the molecular chain of events that ultimately leads to dementia, and follow key researchers in the field who have helped to develop the leading theories of the disease. Along the way, meet individuals from all walks…
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UCI MIND Leadership Council member, Bill Edwards, travels the world opening doors and helping businesses expand and thrive. Read more about Bill's accomplishments here.
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Join us next month for our annual Barclay Lecture Series featuring Dr. Laura D. Baker, Associate Professor of Geriatric Medicine, Neurology, and Public Health at Wake Forest School of Medicine. Over the past 10 years, Dr. Baker has studied the effects of aerobic exercise on cognition and Alzheimer's disease progression, and she visits the Irvine Barclay Theatre on April 19th to deliver an exciting presentation titled, "Exercise for the Brain: Is it Worth the Sweat?" This lecture is free to the community and no reservations are required. For more information, contact Chelsea Cox, Education Coordinator, at (949) 824-9896.
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For more information or to RSVP, contact Frances Saldana: franceshdcare@gmail.com or (714) 593-6205
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