USA2 SPOTLIGHT

A September 8, 2017 Next Avenue article spotlighted the first XPrize for Alzheimer’s, crowdsourcing a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. The goal is targeting the earliest biological signs of AD by utilizing gaming principles, crowdsourcing and rapidly advancing technologies. According to UsA2 Co-Founder and Chairman George Vradenburg, “There’s a clear market failure when it comes to innovations that benefit all players. That’s where the unconventional power of the XPrize crowdsourcing model can bring about powerful acceleration of a cure for Alzheimer’s.” Also covered by Alzheimer's News Today.

MUST READS

A September 8, 2017 UsAgainstAlzheimer’s blog post by ClergyAgainstAlzheimer's member Rev. Dr. John Hagedorn quotes Jesus imploring of his disciples, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” According to the Reverend, “I often think that after we have heard tragic news or after we have worn ourselves out by all we have done that we all need to hear this invitation. I especially think of caregivers -- those of us who have given so much of our time, compassion and love to someone with Alzheimer’s.”

A September 11, 2017 STAT article looked at the Chastain family, who has been studied by Dr. Allan Levey at Emory University in Atlanta for 17 years, to understand their pattern of Alzheimer’s disease inheritance. 44 percent of Chastain family members with an affected parent develop late-onset AD. No other large family has been found with such a high likelihood, suggesting they carry a previously unknown gene so powerful it can cause AD by receiving a copy from just one parent.

According to a September 7, 2017 U.S. News article, an 86-year-old Massachusetts nursing home dementia ward resident was beaten to death. The roommate was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and sent to a hospital for competency evaluation.

DEMENTIA AND THE ARTS

A September 11, 2017 The New Yorker article interviewed author Edwidge Danticat about her new story, “Sunrise, Sunset,” about a grandmother who is losing herself to dementia, and her daughter. It is written from both perspectives. “I’ve always been interested in memory, and particularly in how migration can affect and distort it. I have seen many of my parents’ friends start forgetting the things they treasure most, including their memories of Haiti… When you forget bad memories, you also lose the good ones.”

POLITICS

A September 11, 2017 TC Palm opinion piece by advocate Nancy Ginden calls on Congress, particularly Sen. Marco Rubio, to increase Alzheimer’s research funding by $414 million in the next fiscal year. Florida has the second-highest incidence of AD and Rubio is on the Senate Appropriations Committee, which sets the funding levels for the National Institutes of Health.

A September 7, 2017 Springfield News-Leader article looked at Missouri Senator Roy Blunt’s "key Missouri priorities,” which includes a spending bill with funds for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. $1.8 billion, almost three times the allocation from three budget cycles ago, is allotted for Alzheimer's research which Blunt calls, "the most expensive disease in America.”