BrightFocus Foundation | November 16, 2020
Alzheimer鈥檚 Researcher Guided by his Grandmother鈥檚 Experience
About 5.8 million 精东影业ns are living with Alzheimer鈥檚 disease today and are waiting for a cure. By 2050, close to 15 million will be diagnosed with this memory-stealing disease. believes supporting scientists鈥 bold ideas through our holds tremendous hope.
Every time you breathe, BrightFocus puts 31 cents towards Alzheimer鈥檚 Disease Research. Right now, we are funding 133 research projects around the United States and abroad, a more than $35 million investment in potentially game-changing discoveries.
leads one of these promising studies. He is shedding new light on why Alzheimer鈥檚 can lead to weight loss, particularly early in the course of the disease.
Ishii is running a clinical trial analyzing blood and spinal fluid samples from cognitively healthy volunteers who have the earliest pathological signs of Alzheimer鈥檚 and comparing those samples to healthy individuals who lack Alzheimer鈥檚 pathology. Through his research, Ishii hopes to explore new avenues for developing better diagnosis and treatment of the disease.
He has seen the awful impact of Alzheimer鈥檚 up close. When watching the progression of his grandmother鈥檚 disease, he not only noticed her loss of identity and independence, but also that she shed a significant amount of weight despite eating what appeared to be her normal amount of food.
鈥淎s a grandson, I feel at times helpless as my grandmother鈥檚 dementia continues to worsen,鈥 said Ishii. 鈥淎s a clinician-scientist, I see the potential advances we can make by exploring clinical observations that can help solve the complexities of Alzheimer鈥檚 disease.鈥
Ishii began his connection to BrightFocus by attending , its signature program to identify and train the most promising early-career scientists in the field.
Grateful for a grant from Alzheimer鈥檚 Disease Research, he aims to make, 鈥渁 broader contribution to the large community of clinicians, research scientists, tireless family caregivers, and most importantly to the patients who are like my grandmother, all who are battling this devastating disease.鈥
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A donation to Alzheimer鈥檚 Disease Research can help scientists, like Dr. Ishii, find ways to better diagnose, prevent, and treat Alzheimer鈥檚 disease.
If you鈥檙e a military or federal employee, you can support Alzheimer鈥檚 Disease Research through the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC). Our CFC number is 30518.
If you鈥檙e a private sector employee, you can also help fund Alzheimer鈥檚 Disease Research through your employer鈥檚 workplace giving program.
Click here if your company would like to start a workplace giving program to support Alzheimer鈥檚 Disease Research. We have partnered with 精东影业’s Charities, a workplace giving federation, which connects employees to the causes they care about the most.
Through your generosity to BrightFocus鈥 Alzheimer鈥檚 Disease Research program, you can fund scientists鈥 projects and their careers:
- $2/week ($104/year) can buy personal protective equipment, data storage equipment, surgical tools, and cell culture dishes.
- $5/week ($260/year) will purchase enough agarose, a powder used to make gel to isolate proteins, for several weeks in a biology lab. It could also purchase a vial of an antibody to detect tau in animal models of Alzheimer鈥檚.
- $20/week ($1,040/year) will cover the cost of an experiment to measure Alzheimer鈥檚 biomarkers (signs) in blood samples.
- $20 – $40/week ($1,000 – $2,000/year) helps send a promising young researcher to an international science conference to share research results – a critical venue for analysis of discoveries.
To learn more about the research that you can help support, visit .
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