Last week, our President and COO, Russ Paulsen, joined Punchbowl News founder Anna Palmer for a powerful conversation on the importance of medical research funding in the fight to cure Alzheimer’s and other diseases. Russ also serves as Executive Director of United for Cures, a collaborative network of patient advocacy organizations working together to protect and strengthen federal research funding. 

Watch the full conversation here:

“Cures Matter to Everybody”


During their conversation, Russ emphasized why medical research funding is one of the few issues that consistently transcends party lines.

“If you have a chronic disease, if you have a disease that's not understood, you don't care if you're a Republican or a Democrat, independent, you don't care if you voted in the last election and never voted before, you want that disease figured out as fast as possible. You want a treatment, you want a cure,” said Russ Paulsen.

Then and Now: The Remarkable Advancements in Alzheimer’s Diagnosis


Russ highlighted the significant progress made in Alzheimer’s detection within just one generation:

Russ explained, “In my lifetime, Alzheimer's has gone from a thing that could only be diagnosed after you died, if you looked at a brain. Then it became a thing that you could diagnose with a very expensive nuclear medicine imaging. Now it's a thing that you can diagnose with a blood test, and you can treat it.”

That progress, Russ emphasized, is the direct result of long-term federal investment in biomedical research, particularly through the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

“Cures matter to everybody, it’s a bipartisan thing. We are making progress and we will continue to make progress, but the only way we make progress is with funding through the NIH. Almost every drug, almost every treatment that’s come out in this country has come out because of NIH research... that funding is what gets us cures. We need to keep going.”

A Personal Perspective from Capitol Hill


Prior to Russ’s fireside chat with Anna, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia shared her personal connection to Alzheimer’s and how it shapes her policymaking.

Senator Capito told the audience, “My real first exposure to something that is now called Alzheimer's was really my grandmother, my mother's mother. I was probably in middle school, she just began to really lose her memory, and it was a very sad time for my mother.”

“These conversations that you have in a family, when all of a sudden you're going to take the keys, or the checkbook, or you're not going to be able to do this anymore, when they've been telling you what to do your whole life, it's hard. I think this early detection, training for our professionals, matters, so that's where I've put my focus,” said Senator Capito.

The Bottom Line: Investment Drives Progress

The progress we are seeing today — earlier detection, new treatments, real hope — is the direct result of sustained research funding.

To continue accelerating cures, we must protect and strengthen federal investment in biomedical research.

Listen to the full conversation on UsAgainstAlzheimer's YouTube Channel and read more about the event on Punchbowl’s website.