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AT THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE CENTER
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he Rocky Mountain Alzheimer’s Disease Center (RMADC) is committed to changing the trajectory of Alzheimer’s disease for the millions of Americans and their family members affected by this devastating disorder. By combining innovative research and world-class clinical care, we are improving lives today, and we are developing better preventative strategies and treatments for tomorrow. Since my arrival at CU Anschutz in 2012, you and other generous philanthropists have believed in the vision of the RMADC and in our desire to ultimately find a cure for Alzheimer’s. Your support has provided the resources necessary to grow annual patient visits in our Memory Disorders Clinic from 150 to over 3,500 today – offering thousands of patients from Colorado and the surrounding region access to the highest-quality diagnostics and care available for Alzheimer’s and other dementias. Your support has also fueled our multi-pronged research portfolio that includes research that will increase our understanding of Alzheimer’s, lead to early diagnostics, and identify novel therapies or clinical interventions that could prevent, stop, reverse or cure this disease. Thank you for helping us build such strong momentum, and for your belief in hope for Alzheimer’s, right here in Colorado. – Huntington Potter, PhD Director, Rocky Mountain Alzheimer's Disease Center
You’ve Made This Possible Over the past five years, the RMADC has grown tremendously in both our clinical and research efforts. This incredible progress, made possible in large part through your philanthropic support, has allowed us to provide the highest-quality care to scores of new patients, and to pursue novel research directions that hold great promise for providing earlier and more accurate diagnoses of Alzheimer’s, and for the development of better treatments and potential cures. In 2014, the first subject at CU Anschutz enrolled in the Pilot GM-CSF/Leukine® Trial, and this year, our preliminary interim analyses show signs of improvement in cognition and reduced amyloid. We have also expanded our efforts outside of GM-CSF/Leukine® and are continuing to screen a large drug library in our search for potential new Alzheimer’s drugs. Understanding that we need more effective drug options, we are dedicated to identifying the next promising therapy. In the past few years, we have made great strides including: receiving a $1 million Part the Cloud grant for a longer Leukine® Safety/Efficacy Trial, launching an amyloid brain imaging program, and enrolling 127 participants in our Bio-AD study to search for Alzheimer’s biomarkers.
Fueled by Philanthropy Over the next several years, we have ambitious plans of becoming one of the premier Alzheimer’s research and care destinations in the U.S. We aim to continue expanding and strengthening our highquality care in the Memory Disorders Clinic. We also plan to further accelerate and expand our research program. Highlights of our research directions include: • pursuing new drug therapies for Alzheimer’s disease, including Leukine® and less costly synthetic versions of Leukine®, and identifying existing small molecules that could combat the disease, • exploring the role of neuro-inflammation in Alzheimer’s disease, and how we could alter this process, • studying small vesicles called exosomes that are shed from brain cells into the blood, which could help with early and non-invasive diagnoses, • studying the relationship between immune system dysregulation and late life cognitive decline, • examining sleep patterns and their relationship to mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease, and exploring potentially beneficial sleep interventions, • studying how speech and facial expression changes may help with earlier detection of Alzheimer’s or related disorders, and • investigating key cellular processes and signaling pathways connected to Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, including investigating chromosome mis-segregation as an underlying mechanism in a wide range of neurodegenerative disorders.
by the numbers RMADC laboratory research team has grown from 0 to 16 RMADC clinical care and research team has grown from 1 part-time behavioral neurologist to 17 members
Currently engaged in nearly 40 projects
Thanks to your support, the RMADC is advancing an ongoing, prospective longitudinal study, called Bio-AD. This study follows aging- and Alzheimer’s disease-related changes in a large group of study participants. Our goal is to collect data to help us identify various ‘biological fingerprints’ to help us predict which individuals are most likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease, which individuals are most likely to be protected from dementia and the underlying reasons for those differences. With this powerful information, we will better understand, predict, and, ultimately, treat aging- and Alzheimer’s disease-related changes in late life.
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“Through your generous support, we are better able to recruit, comprehensively assess, and longitudinally track aging adults in the community, which is critical to our understanding of Alzheimer’s and other devastating brain diseases. The faculty and staff involved with the BioAD study are incredibly appreciative of your support, as it has allowed us to implement an innovative line of research that we believe will ultimately help us improve early diagnosis and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases in aging adults.” – Brianne Bettcher, PhD Director, Neuropsychology Research, Rocky Mountain Alzheimer’s Disease Center Principal Investigator, Bio-AD Study
Thanks to continued philanthropic support, Dr. Boyd has continued his Alzheimer’s research career at CU Anschutz. Dr. Boyd has expanded his contributions to Alzheimer’s research and drug discovery by pursuing an MBA, and focusing much of his time on regulatory and patent work related to drug development. This focus will ensure that the clinical trial continues in a way that will give GM-CSF/Leukine® the best chance to be taken to market if the drug proves successful.
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“The rigor and momentum of this clinical trial have only been possible through philanthropic funds. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity philanthropy has given me to continue my focus on Alzheimer’s research and to learn from Dr. Potter – one of the best in the field.” – Tim Boyd, PhD Faculty Researcher, Rocky Mountain Alzheimer’s Disease Center
CU Anschutz Office of Advancement AnschutzAdvancement@ucdenver.edu 303-724-8227
If you would prefer to receive these updates electronically, please email AnschutzAdvancement@ucdenver.edu