Funding a cure: CF fund grants over $6M for Alzheimer’s research

Last May, Michele Sands picked up a flyer promoting medical research studies for older participants, including an Alzheimer’s study at the newly established Delaware Center for Cognitive Aging Research (DECCAR) at the University of Delaware — and promptly folded it into her purse. Her late husband, Howard Sands, had died of Alzheimer’s in 2021, having worked as a pre-clinical medical research scientist for 35 years.

With him in mind, Sands, a retired communications professional living in Wilmington, applied for — and was accepted to — the Delaware Longitudinal Study for Alzheimer’s Prevention (DeLSAP), a multi-year observational cohort study examining all the risks for Alzheimer’s disease in a racially and ethnically representative group of midlife and older adults.

Shown (l to r) are: DECCAR Associate Director Matthew Cohen, DCF Director of Advancement Maribeth Przywara, DECCAR Executive Committee Member Alyssa Lanzi, DECCAR Executive Committee Member Curtis Johnson, DECCAR Director Christopher Martens, and DeLSAP participant Michele Sands.

“Part of my motivation was altruistic, but part of it was personal,” she admits. “I wanted to know if I had early signs of brain aging that might indicate a risk for Alzheimer’s, so I could share those results with my children. As the widow of a scientist, I also recognize that scientific progress relies on grant funding, and those grants depend on data gathered from participants.”

This time, funding came not from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or federal dollars, but from just down the road in Wilmington. The Delaware Community Foundation (DCF) issued over $6 million in grants in November 2023 from the Paul H. Boerger Fund, which supports research to prevent and cure Alzheimer’s.

The grants included a five-year, $5 million award to the University of Pennsylvania to support the development of new molecular therapies for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias; $500,000 to Delaware State University to support a one-year research project to develop new mouse models that mimic the disease in humans; and $575,000 to DECCAR to support a one-year research project focused on linking modifiable lifestyle choices with accelerated dementia risk and identifying new interventions to stop, slow or reverse Alzheimer’s disease.

“Paul H. Boerger established what’s called a legacy gift,” says Sarah Hench, executive vice president for strategic engagement at the DCF. “It’s a plan he set in motion during his lifetime that continues to make a meaningful impact after his passing. Our role at DCF is to honor that vision, ensuring these funds create the greatest possible impact, which is why we chose to support the ground-breaking work of the Delaware Center for Cognitive Aging Research.”

With support from the DCF, researchers at DECCAR were able to expand the original aims of the DeLSAP to include blood-based biomarkers and MRI scans to predict the risk of Alzheimer’s more accurately in participants and collect better data for clinical trials. Biomarker testing also helps scientists identify subgroups within the populations that arrive at Alzheimer’s through different means.

“Alzheimer’s disease is so complex,” says Christopher Martens, Ph.D., associate professor in the UD College of Health Sciences and director of DECCAR. “There is no single cause of Alzheimer’s disease. Genetic risk factors for Alzheimer’s only explain some of the disease and are often compounded by environmental influences, such as limited access to nutritious food and higher levels of chronic stress.”

People in disadvantaged areas, where environmental factors strongly compound Alzheimer’s risk, have been historically overlooked in clinical trials — or experience healthcare related trauma that fosters mistrust of medical professionals. According to a 2020 report from the Alzheimer’s Association, African Americans are about two times as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease compared to non-Hispanic whites, while Hispanics are about 1.5 times as likely to develop the disease.

“Historically, researchers have not adequately included the groups most impacted by the disease, including racial and ethnic minorities and those with a lower socioeconomic position,” says Martens. “That’s why Delaware is such a great place for Alzheimer’s research. We have cities and rural areas as well as racial and ethnic diversity that accurately reflects that makeup of the rest of the country.”

Through preliminary funding from the DCF, researchers were able to secure additional resources for DECCAR, including a two year grant from the UD Institute for Engineering Driven Health to develop a new blood test for early Alzheimer’s disease, a $3.9 million grant from NIH to study how cardiovascular function impacts the brain and other grants to recruit more participants for the DeLSAP.

Sands, for her part, is proud of her involvement in DeLSAP. “My hope is that this research will pave the way for new treatments and preventative measures, giving my children and their generation a fighting chance against Alzheimer’s disease.”

Contact Maribeth Przywara at mp*******@de***.org to learn about legacy gifts and other ways to make an impact in Delaware.