Cure Alzheimer’s Fund

Almost everyone knows someone who either has Alzheimer’s Disease or someone who’s life is affected by it. Unanimously, all people can agree on the fact that Alzheimer’s is unwanted, damaging, and destructive. Today on the HHF blog, we’re featuring another perfect score non-profit organization (as rated by charitynavigator.com) that’s working to fund research with the highest probability of preventing Alzheimer’s Disease. Cure Alzheimer’s Fund is doing its part to provide the necessary means to accelerate the research that can hopefully one day eliminate this terrible disease.

Before we share the organization, we thought it prudent to answer the question:

What exactly is Alzheimer’s Disease?

According to this non-profit’s website, Alzheimer’s is a progressive brain disease that causes problems with memory, reasoning, behavior and motor skills. Symptoms of Alzheimer’s slowly worsen over time, and the disease is ultimately fatal. Commonly presented in the form of dementia, it’s more likely to materialize with age. Currently, there is no cure for this disease. Medication can help lessen symptoms, there’s no real relief available to treat the overall cognitive decline.

Cure Alzheimer’s Fund was started in 2004 by founders Henry McCance, Phyllis Rappaport, and Jacqui and Jeff Morby. After coming together, they decided to build a research fund designed to dramatically accelerate research. All four of these individuals decided that this cause was more important than their personal careers in venture capital and corporate start-ups. Since getting together, the founders have created an organization that has contributed more than $50,000,000 in research. These efforts have paved the way for discovering several key breakthroughs including a potential treatment recently selected by the National Institutes of Health for its “Blueprint” drug discovery program. You can read more about this research in Cure Alzheimer’s Fund’s News article titled “Steve Wagner Receives NIH ‘Blueprint’ Grant.” Additionally, the money raised has also helped fund the “Alzheimer’s in a Dish” study which promises to greatly accelerate drug testing.

On the non-profit’s page that details their story, they say, “Cure Alzheimer’s Fund supports some of the best scientific minds in the field of Alzheimer’s research, and it does so without any financial gain for its founders or donors. Fully 100 percent of funds raised by Cure Alzheimer’s Fund go directly to research—the Board of Directors covers all overhead expenses.Our Research Consortium is an all-star team of scientists working at premier research institutions across the country, regularly conferring with one another on the progress and impediments in their research and constantly sharing their data.”

The goal of Cure Alzheimer Fund is to stop Alzheimer’s disease through early prediction, prevention and effective intervention in those patients who have become symptomatic.

More specifically, Cure Alzheimer’s Fund seeks to end the disease by identifying all risk genes, using those genes to reveal underlying disease mechanisms, and aggressively pursue potential therapies based on the knowledge gained from Alzheimer’s genes. Cure Alzheimer Fund seeks to move forward with its next initiative, Genes to Therapies, which will develop more effective interventions. (Read more on Cure Alzheimer Fund’s Research page.)

If you’d like to read on about the Focus Areas of Cure Alzheimer’s Fund to delve specifically into the organization’s process and the research that’s going on, click on the links below to discover more:

• Genes to Therapies Drug Screening
• Identification and Early Detection
• Innate Immunity
• Microbiome
• Pathological Pathways and Systems
• Stem Cell Models
• Therapeutic Strategies
• Whole Genome Sequencing & Epigenetics 
• Individual Projects & Other

If you’re feeling called to give to this incredible non-profit, visit their donation page. Again, 100% of what you donate will go directly to the incredible research being done. Many thanks for considering this organization as you learn more about the amazing work being done by these good samaritans helping those in need.