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Ohio Emerges as a Major
Model of Collaboration in Alzheimer’s Research as the
State’s Alzheimer’s Population Is Projected to Grow
Dr. Alan Lerner looks at how Ohio is growing its Alzheimer’s
research capabilities and reflects on the strong foundation
set.
“Our roots go deep,” he said. “Many of the leaders of the
field worked in Ohio, grew up in Ohio.” Today, “I’d say
(Ohio) is square in the middle of the pack. The Cleveland
Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (CADRC) is a huge
national acknowledgment of the progress,” said Lerner, who
is co-director of the Clinical Core at the Alzheimer’s
Disease Research Center and Director of the Brain Health and
Memory Center at the Neurological Institute of University
Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center. “It’s like ‘we know you
are doing great things. Now you have a seat at the table.’”
Ohio is emerging as a major model of collaboration in the
area of Alzheimer’s research as the state’s population
living with Alzheimer’s grows. Today, 220,000 Ohioans age 65
and older live with Alzheimer’s disease. By 2025, that
number is expected to climb to 250,000. In Northwest Ohio,
almost 32,000 people are living with Alzheimer's disease,
and 96,000 family and friends are providing care.
Eric VanVlymen, Executive
Director of the Alzheimer’s Association in Ohio, said, Ohio
has fantastic Alzheimer’s research areas and with the
availability of research dollars, Ohio has the opportunity
to use that funding to be a leader not only for Ohio
residents but around the country. “When research comes to
Ohio, that means they are also bringing the latest and
greatest techniques to Ohio. If you live here, you have
access to those things,” he said.
The Cleveland Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, which was
announced in July 2019, is a prime example of bringing
together the expertise of some of Ohio’s top Alzheimer’s
researchers and clinicians. Funded by the National Institute
on Aging, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health,
the Cleveland Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center leverages
the resources of many of the major health care institutions
in northeast Ohio from Case Western Reserve University,
Cleveland Clinic, Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center,
the MetroHealth System and University Hospitals. It is one
of 31 Alzheimer’s Disease Centers around the country.
Prior to its creation, Ohioans had to travel to Ann Arbor,
Pittsburgh, Indianapolis or Lexington, Ky.– the closest
other ADRCs - to access the expertise of an NIA-funded
Alzheimer’s Research Center. Dr. James Leverenz, Director of
the Cleveland Alzheimer’s Research Center and Director of
the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health at the Cleveland Clinic
in Cleveland, said, “at this point all though we are well
aware of the expertise at Ohio State and I believe there is
some expertise in Toledo as well as down in Cincinnati, the
(Research Center) grant itself focuses on northeast Ohio.
The focus is really to provide a foundation to expand
research on Alzheimer’s and related dementias…It’s creating
an infrastructure for research to expand in the area.”
That infrastructure includes developing a structure to share
research findings, engaging and enrolling a diverse group of
individuals into observational studies, determining if basic
science or animal model work can translate to human studies
and providing expertise into other dementias like Lewy Body
dementia. Data collected in Ohio helps researchers
nationwide, Dr. Lerner said.
Alzheimer’s disease, which impacts approximately 5.8 million
Americans, is a fatal brain disease that currently cannot be
prevented, slowed or cured. Dr. Lerner said, “before COVID,
we had two epidemics, we had the Opioid epidemic and we have
the Alzheimer’s epidemic…In my career, I have seen the
number of Alzheimer’s cases go from 2 million to 4 million
and now we are almost at 6 million. We need some version of
flattening the curve.”
At The Ohio State University, Dr. Douglas Scharre, Director
of the Division of Cognitive Neurology and Director of the
Center for Cognitive and Memory Disorders, said he is seeing
great new collaborations and innovations happening because
researchers in other medical fields like cancer are bringing
their techniques to the field of Alzheimer’s research.
“Since Congress has increased the budgets for the NIA there
definitely has been an uptick of collaborative research here
at Ohio State,” Dr. Scharre said. “It encourages individuals
who may not have been working directly in the Alzheimer’s
field to say, ‘I think I can apply my techniques and talents
to the Alzheimer’s field,’ which is what we need.”
The Alzheimer's Association, which is the world's largest
nonprofit funder of Alzheimer's disease research, has
lobbied extensively for increased federal funding for
Alzheimer’s and related dementia research at the NIH. Since
2011, annual federal Alzheimer’s research funding has
increased from $448 million to $2.8 billion nationwide.
Ohio is getting a good share of the funding. According to
the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research, an
organization that each year publishes a ranking of NIH grant
awards, last year Ohio ranked number 10 in the nation for
NIH awards.
In addition, between 1993 and 2020, the Alzheimer’s
Association has funded about $16 million in Ohio research
projects.
Dr. Scharre said Alzheimer’s disease advances will follow
the money. “It depends entirely on how much money goes into
this,” he said. “Nothing moves without funds. If you just
keep the funds where they are, it will take a longer time.”
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