UCI Researchers Receive $600,000 Grant for Study of Brain Disorders
A team of researchers at UC Irvine has won a $600,000 grant to explore new ways of diagnosing and treating brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, the team’s director said Wednesday.
“We couldn’t have gotten a better Christmas present,” Prof. Carl W. Cotman said.
Cotman said the grant is part of $3.4 million the Pew Charitable Trusts of Philadelphia awarded to five U.S. universities from a field of about 130 applicants interested in neurological research.
“We hope it will be the seed to establish a very high-powered program in understanding cognitive deficiencies with the elderly and those with Alzheimer’s disease,” Cotman said.
The grant is for three years, with possible renewal for an additional two years, depending on review by the trust, Cotman said.
Trust officials in Philadelphia have emphasized that UC Irvine’s researchers should view the grant as seed money to attract more private and public financial support, Cotman said.
6 Scientists on Team
Cotman, who teaches psychobiology, will head a team of six scientists, including principal investigators Gary S. Lynch--another psychobiology professor--and Ira T. Lott, an associate professor of pediatrics and neurology.
Alzheimer’s disease was selected as the project’s main focus because it’s a neurological disorder that “we really know so little about, including diagnosis, how to treat it or what causes it,” Cotman said.
Alzheimer’s afflicts an estimated 1 million Americans in its severe form. An additional 1 million to 2 million people are estimated to suffer from a milder stage of Alzheimer’s. Members of the second group can manage to live on their own for a while but will become helpless later.
The disease is a progressive degeneration of the brain that renders its victims virtually without memory, as dependent as newborn infants on support from others. Despite promising new approaches, the inevitable outcome is death.
According to a recent national poll released by the University of Southern California, 44% of Americans over the age of 45 fear that they are likely to fall victim to the terrible malady, which was scarely noticed by the medical profession as recently as a decade ago.
$20 Billion in Costs
It is estimated that Alzheimer’s disease costs the national economy $20 billion in health costs annually, Cotman said.
“And as the population grows older, it’s going to be the most serious health problem, next to AIDS, that we have,” Cotman said.
In January, researchers are scheduled to focus their investigation on the brain’s olfactory system, which gives the body its sense of smell and is a little-explored aspect of the brain.
They hope to use the olfactory system as a means of studying parts of the brain affected by the disease, he said. Special emphasis will be on the hippocampus, a ridge along each lateral cavity of the brain, which Alzheimer’s is known to attack severely, Cotman said.
