Gift to UCI Will Pay for Brain Study

A $1-million gift from a Laguna Beach couple will be used to draw an eminent physician to lead clinical research efforts at the UC Irvine Institute of Brain Aging and Dementia.

The gift from Albert and Tricia Nichols will provide $100,000 for research each year for 10 years, a stable source of funding that will help the university attract a world-class senior researcher in dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

The Institute of Brain Aging and Dementia is at the forefront of the battle against illnesses primarily of the elderly and is part of UCI’s growing concentration on neuroscience research, which seeks causes and cures of diseases from epilepsy to Alzheimer’s.

“The Nichols’ gift will enable UCI’s Institute of Brain Aging and Dementia to make significant strides in research that is becoming increasingly important as our population ages,” Chancellor Laurel L. Wilkening said.

“Bringing another leading neuroscientist to UCI will help an already nationally recognized research program make additional discoveries that will be of enormous benefit to society.”