One hundred years after the first diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) November 3, 1906

3 families spark search for genes tied to Alzheimer's

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Frustrated with the slow progress of research on Alzheimer's disease, three prominent families with local connections have formed a nonprofit foundation designed to find a cure for Alzheimer's within a decade.
Operating quietly for two years, the Cure Alzheimer's Fund raised nearly $3 million and awarded one-third to Harvard geneticist Rudy Tanzi and colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital.
The philanthropists' approach is controversial because they are focusing on identifying all the genes connected with Alzheimer's, rather than spreading their efforts to other possible causes. The founding families, two of whom live in the Boston area, hope this strategy will more quickly and efficiently result in treatments. Currently, there are only a handful of drugs available, none of which significantly affects the disease's relentless destruction of the mind.
The group is going public with its venture today -- almost 100 years to the day after the disease was identified -- with the goal of eventually raising about $15 million a year from foundations, corporations, and wealthy donors.
The initiative is underway as federal funding for Alzheimer's research -- $652 million last year -- is shrinking, despite the growing number of Americans with the disease.
An estimated 4.5 million people have Alzheimer's now, but without effective prevention measures, that could reach 16 million by 2050 because of the aging of the population. The Alzheimer's Association, the largest private funder of research on the disease, spent nearly $21 million this year on a broad range of projects. The pharmaceutical industry is also working to develop new Alzheimer's drugs.
"We thought we'd do a better job," said Jeffrey Morby, an investment banker spearheading the new fund. "We felt we could move faster since our effort is more of a rifle shot -- to find a cure."
Morby, managing director of Amarna Corp. and a former Cambridge resident, is bankrolling the project for the first few years, along with his wife, venture capitalist Jacqueline Morby, developer Phyllis Rappaport, and venture capitalist Henry McCance . Morby said all of the families "have been touched by Alzheimer's." They also have raised funds from about 425 others.
None of the founders is seeking to profit from the research, said Morby, now of Pennsylvania. And the foundation is requiring that the work it supports be made public so that others can build on the findings. The scientists -- and their universities -- will own any rights to treatments developed. Tanzi, who earlier helped found a company working on Alzheimer's drugs, says the company has no rights to the foundation-funded work.