USA2 SPOTLIGHT 

Must Watch: WomenAgainstAlzheimer’s Co-Founder Meryl Comer was honored at the 2015 Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation’s Fifth Annual Great Ladies Luncheon. Watch Meryl's powerful speech here. 

ICYMI: A May 21, 2015 FasterCures blog post highlighted a panel that included USAgainstAlzheimer's Co-Founder Trish Vradenburg on the power of philanthropy to shape and drive Alzheimer’s research. According to the article, “Strategic philanthropy can play an important role in advancing treatments because this capital is nimble, plays the long game, and has a big appetite for risk. In fact, its willingness to take on risk is perhaps its highest and best use – to take the risk that investors won’t take. Drug development is all about risk and reward. And philanthropy, when allocated strategically, can be extremely catalytic and take risk out of the science and out of the research system. Most likely a new therapy isn’t going to make it to the market funded 100 percent by philanthropy, but it can be used to make it more attractive for other funders like the government, venture capital, or industry to join in.”

MUST READS

A June 3, 2015 Time article reported on new research that finds “the brain is directly connected to the immune system by previously unknown vessels.” According to the article, “The discovery of these new vessels has enormous implications for every neurological disease with an immune component, from Alzheimer’s to multiple sclerosis. It could open up entirely new avenues for research and treatment alike, all stemming from the kind of discovery that has become extraordinarily rare in the 21st century.”

A June 2, 2015 Mirror article reported on a powerful letter written by an 11-year-old to her grandmother with Alzheimer’s. According to the letter, “Lots of people think dementia only affects much older people in their 80s and 90s. My Nana was 58. The day Nana was diagnosed was the day we ALL got it. Families get dementia not just the person with it…But life does not stop with Alzheimer’s. Since then Nana has danced on stage at 'Priscilla Queen of the Desert', kissed Bryan Ferry and we have visited New York together as a family. Nana is still amazing. Nana is still fun. Nana can still ice-skate backwards. Nana is still my Nana. But Nana forgets… So I REMEMBER.”

A June 2, 2015 Government Accountability Office press statement announced that a new GAO study found “about half of households age 55 and older have no retirement savings (such as in a 401(k) plan or an IRA).”

RESEARCH, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY  

A June 2, 2015 Huffington Post article reported that new research from the University of Arizona finds “the physical health and cognitive functioning of a person's spouse can significantly affect someone's own quality of life.” According to the article, “Other studies have also bolstered the idea that caregivers' lives are deeply impacted by the illness of a loved one. Nearly 60 percent of Alzheimer's and dementia caregivers rate the emotional stress of caregiving as high or very high; about 40 percent suffer from depression. Due to the physical and emotional toll of caregiving, Alzheimer's and dementia caregivers had $9.7 billion in additional health care costs of their own in 2014, reports the Alzheimer's Association.”