USA2 SPOTLIGHT  

A September 21, 2016 NBC News article highlighted a new report released by UsAgainstAlzheimer’s Latino Network and the USC Roybal Institute on Aging that projects a dramatic increase in the number of Latinos living with Alzheimer’s over the coming decades. According to Jason Resendez, executive director of the LatinosAgainstAlzheimer’s Network and Coalition, “Latino families are increasingly in the cross hairs of this growing public health crisis and are among the least resourced to deal with the financial demand Alzheimer's places on households and on family caregivers.” The report has received wide coverage from national and regional outlets, including the Associated Press, The Columbus Dispatch, and USC News. 

A September 21, 2016 Next Avenue interview with Diane Rehm highlighted her partnership with UsAgainstAlzheimer’s and her role in co-founder Trish Vradenburg’s play Surviving Grace. According to Rehm, “My God, to think about how often that may happen in real life. And to play that woman who was the playwright Trish Vradenburg’s mother, that’s exactly what happened. And so Trish with her wonderful comedic sense — she wrote for the TV series Designing Women — took her own experience and created a tragic comedy out of it. Some of the lines are absolutely brilliant.”

MUST READS   

A September 22, 2016 Bloomberg article highlighted the efforts of drug developers to prevent Alzheimer’s. According to the article, “But some saw a silver lining: Even if the experimental drug isn’t a cure, there’s reason to believe something like it might ward off Alzheimer’s disease in healthy people, sort of the way statins are thought to prevent heart attacks. And preventive therapy for the brain could help avert what many experts see as an impending disaster: By 2050, there will be 32 million people over the age of 80 in the U.S., and unless something big changes, about 16 million will have Alzheimer’s disease.”

A September 21, 2016 USC News article highlighted the university’s efforts to explore “a key Alzheimer’s gene and how it disproportionately impacts women.” According to the article, “Among the 5 million Americans diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, nearly two-thirds are women. While the reason for this striking discrepancy isn’t yet known, proposed theories range from differences in health care usage and lifestyle factors to life span and other biological variations. USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology Professor Christian Pike studies this disparity at the deepest level, examining key genes involved in Alzheimer’s and how their effects differ in males and females.”