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The National Institute on Aging (NIA) has awarded a five-year grant expected to total $53.4 million to Brown University and Boston-based Hebrew SeniorLife (HSL) to lead a nationwide effort to improve healthcare and quality of life for people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, as well as their caregivers. 

Together, the institutions will create a massive collaborative research incubator to develop trials aimed at evaluating interventions for Alzheimer’s disease or Alzheimer’s-related dementia (AD/ADRD). 

The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that while more than 5 million Americans currently live with Alzheimer’s or a related dementia, the number is expected to double by 2050. The current annual cost of dementia care exceeds $226 million a year in the U.S. alone. 

“It’s time for Alzheimer’s and other dementias to receive the same level of research focus and investment as cancer,” said Louis Woolf, HSL president and CEO. “We’re proud to collaborate with Brown University to address this national epidemic that affects not only patients, but their families and caregivers as well.” 

A Night Out For Alzheimer’s Disease

September 26th | 6-8 PM
Prime Rib | 1701 Locust St.

Tickets and Information

At the Penn Memory Center, we’re leading the fields of Alzheimer’s disease care, research, education, and discovery…

…and we need your help.

Join us September 26th as we celebrate our resilient patients and caregivers and support the research, clinical care, caregiver support, and training initiatives that define the Penn Memory Center. Enjoy a fun evening that will include drinks, appetizers, and creative ways to support our work. Raffle and auction prizes include Philadelphia Eagles tickets, whiskey tastings, restaurant gift cards, and even a beach vacation!

Without philanthropic support, PMC could not sustain the infrastructure we need to provide high-quality clinical care, and our ability to secure research funding would be hindered. The dollars we receive from philanthropy and research allow us to provide the premier care not found in other outpatient practices.

Made Possible Through Philanthropy:

• Longer visits
• Psychometric testing and testers
• Training of the next generation of memory care specialists, neuropsychologists, and geriatric social workers
• Counselors and caregiver support
• Memory Cafés and other special programs
• PET Scans, including amyloid and tau
• 3T and 7T MRI scans
• The annual Research Partner Thank You Luncheon
• InSight Magazine

If you are unable to attend this event but still want to support our efforts, please visit www.pennmemorycenter.org/gifts.

Penn Memory Center Geriatrician Soumya Bollampally, DO, will be leaving PMC this September after four years. 

Dr. Bollampally earned her undergraduate degree in Health and Societies from the University of Pennsylvania, received her medical degree at the Rowan School of Osteopathic Medicine and completed her Internal Medicine Residency and Chief Residency year at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia. She completed her Geriatrics Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania and became an Instructor in the Division of Geriatric Medicine in 2015 and Assistant Professor in 2016. 

Dr. Bollampally’s work and research focused much on home-based care for elderly adults. She published two abstracts in 2015 on how home-based care reduces the cost for eligible adults under Medicare’s Independence-at-Home criteria. Dr. Bollampally said she would like to thank everyone at PMC for an incredible experience and invaluable knowledge that will guide her through the rest of her career.

Virginia M.Y. Lee, PhD, the John H. Ware 3^rd Professor in Alzheimer’s Research in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research at the University of Pennsylvania, will receive the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. The award recognizes Lee’s work in understanding how different forms of misfolded proteins can move from cell to cell and lead to disease progression in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and other dementias and movement disorders.

“It is an honor to receive such a prestigious award, and this funding will help us as we continue to push for a greater understanding of these diseases that can ultimately help us find ways to help millions of these patients,” Lee said.

By Danny Yarnall

Tangles in Time, a new production from Theater of Witness that features performances from people with dementia, care partners, and health-care professionals, will debut at Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral on September 13-14. (Details)

The project uses live theater along with original film and music to communicate the participants’ true stories of illness, caring, love, and loss.

By Leah Fein and Danny Yarnall

Simple direct-to-consumer genetic tests, like 23andMe, have made it easier than ever for people to learn their APOE genotype status. But experts disagree on the value of this information. 

While everyone has two copies of the APOE gene, only the e4 variant (known as APOE4) increases one’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. About 20 percent of the population has one or two copies of the e4 variant.

Penn Memory Center (PMC) researchers have studied the responses of more than 3,000 people who have learned their APOE genotype result.  Penn experts say the value is something the individual has to assess.

“So far there is no significant uptick in psychological harm or acute psychological catastrophic reactions,” PMC Co-Director Jason Karlawish, MD, told the Wall Street Journal in a recent article on the topic. Still, “unless you have very particular reason you want to know your genetic risk, it’s not a very valuable test,” Dr. Karlawish said. 

Credit: Creative Commons, Mike MacKenzie

By Steve Graff

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by Penn Medicine News.

When the biotech company Biogen stopped a clinical trial investigating a drug known as aducanumab to slow Alzheimer’s, disappointment swept through the neurology community. “This one hurts,” one neurologist told CNN in March. “Alzheimer’s patients just can’t get a break.” The drug, which reduces amyloid, a nefarious protein believed to drive the disease, had slowed cognitive decline in animals. But studies in humans showed the intervention was too late. Damage—likely from the early buildup of the protein—had already been done, and patients’ outcomes weren’t improving as the trial progressed. Other promising drugs remain in the pipeline, but that trial—which included several Penn patients—was yet another reminder of the staggering complexity of Alzheimer’s.

“This a disease that can start up to 20 years before any symptoms become obvious,” said Yong Fan, PhD, an assistant professor of Radiology in the Center for Biomedical Imaging Computing and Analytics at Penn. “So if you could predict the disease earlier, you would have a better chance to cure it with drugs.”

Fortunately, the field of detection has made significant strides over the years to help get there. Researchers are consistently finding better ways to track rogue proteins and predict the progression of cognitive decline with biomarkers, neuroimaging, and more recently and arguably most impressively, the rapidly advancing technology touching nearly every part of medicine today: artificial intelligence.

By Sally Sapega

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on Penn Medicine News.

Please join the Penn Memory Center for a series of free events featuring one of the most renowned and influential scholars and writers on psychiatry, anthropology, global health, and cultural issues in medicine. Dr. Arthur Kleinman is the author of The Soul of Care: The Moral Education of a Husband and a Doctor, available for pre-order through Penguin Random House.

By Danny Yarnall 

Jessica Nuñez first walked into the Memory Disorders Clinic on July 10, 1995, having recently finished her sophomore year at Thomas Alva Edison High School. She admittedly didn’t know what to expect from her new summer job. 

“I did not know anything about the memory center. I did not know anything about Alzheimer’s disease. I just needed a part-time job in the summertime,” said Jessica, now in her 25th — and final — year at what has become the Penn Memory Center. A research coordinator since 2003, Jessica will be leaving PMC in August to pursue new career opportunities.