GHR’s Health initiative partners with organizations using innovative trials to pursue the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. One such trial is the Alzheimer’s Prevention Initiative (API) Generation Study which recently began enrollment in high-risk older adults to validate the use of genetic screening and identify an effective approach to prevent the disease.

Led by Dr. Eric Reiman and Dr. Pierre Tariot of Banner Alzheimer’s Institute (BAI), this pioneering multi-site prevention study is working to determine whether two investigational anti-amyloid compounds—an active immunotherapy and an oral medication—can prevent or delay the emergence of Alzheimer’s symptoms in people at a high genetic risk of developing the disease. The study will involve more than 1,300 cognitively healthy adults, age 60 to 75, who have inherited a copy of the e4 type of the apolipoprotein (APOE) gene from each parent. Roughly one in four people carry a single copy of the gene, which is strongly linked to late-onset Alzheimer’s.

The Generation Study is part of the API, an international collaborative led by BAI to accelerate the evaluation of promising treatments. The study is sponsored by Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis and Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based biotechnology company Amgen in collaboration with BAI, with funding from the National Institute on Aging—part of the National Institutes of Health—as well as GHR, Alzheimer’s Association, Fidelity Biosciences Research Institute and Banner Alzheimer’s Foundation.

To learn more about how GHR is joining forces with industry, other philanthropic partners and the United States National Institutes of Health on the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease, contact us.

GHR Foundation’s Health Initiative is targeting funding to improve some of the largest Alzheimer’s prevention research efforts in the field, including Washington University Medical School’s DIAN-TU Study. This study is quickly evaluating potential prevention treatments among people with a rare genetic trait that causes the onset of the devastating disease in the prime of their lives.

The DIAN-TU Study was recently profiled by PBS’ SciTech Now program, which interviewed Dr. Randall Bateman, Dr. John Morris and a participant of the study. The DIAN-TU segment is the first of three in the 26-minute show, and continues in an interview at the end. This touching and informative profile illustrates not only the science behind the study, but the implications of the disease and what motivates participants.

​To learn more about how GHR is joining forces with industry, other philanthropic partners and the United States National Institutes of Health for the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease, contact us.

GHR’s Health Initiative has committed more than $17 million over 5 years to scaling up important Alzheimer’s disease prevention research already underway. The Foundation is targeting funding to improve some of the largest research efforts in the field, including Washington University's DIAN-TU Study, which is quickly evaluating potential prevention treatments among those who are most likely to develop the disease, and Harvard University's A4 Study, which is working toward FDA approval for prevention therapy in the general population.

A recent Nature article highlights the importance of preclinical treatments, like DIAN-TU, which are initiated in cognitively unimpaired at-risk people, and are intended to postpone, reduce the risk of or completely prevent the clinical onset of Alzheimer’s. The authors argue that we need faster ways to evaluate these treatments, new ways to collaborate towards common goals and determination to expedite preclinical trials.

One useful tool for accelerating the initiation and performance of these trials is Collaboration for Alzheimer’s Prevention (CAP), a convening and consensus-building initiative co-founded by DIAN-TU and A4, among others. Important strides made by CAP include:

• Development of trial outcomes, including cognitive and clinical endpoints and biomarkers
• Standardization of sample and data collection, such as the use of tau imaging in all CAP trials
• Participant recruitment and retention through the development of a registry
• Data and sample sharing mechanisms

​These developments help carry out Alzheimer’s prevention trials with care, thoroughness and maximum impact. ​While all research is uncertain, the potential to turn the tide and provide hope for all families that face Alzheimer’s has never been more promising.  To learn more about GHR’s Alzheimer’s prevention funding efforts, contact us.

GHR Foundation’s Health Initiative is dedicated to a game-changing undertaking—the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. The Foundation is targeting funding to improve some of the most important research efforts in the field, including Washington University's DIAN-TU Study. This trial focuses on rapid testing of prevention therapies among families that are most likely to develop the disease.
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Recently, DIAN-TU announced it has completed participant enrollment for the first stage of the trial. This enrollment milestone means the first biomarker results will be available at the end of 2016, with the final cognitive endpoint expected in late 2019. This first stage will determine the effects of two drugs targeting amyloid plaques, which are believed by some scientists to be the first step in the process leading to cognitive impairment.

The DIAN-TU team is working with the next generation of innovative drugs and study designs, and expects enrollment for new drugs. To learn more about DIAN-TU and GHR Foundation’s involvement in other innovative Alzheimer’s prevention trials, contact us.

GHR Foundation’s Health Initiative is joining forces with industry, other philanthropic partners and the United States National Institutes of Health on a game-changing undertaking—the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. Recently, GHR Foundation was awarded the Jerome H. Stone Philanthropy Award for Alzheimer’s Research for its philanthropic efforts to support Alzheimer’s disease prevention research. The award was also presented to the MetLife Foundation, which works with experts to assist low-income individuals facing Alzheimer’s.

The recognition was presented at the Annual Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in memory of Alzheimer’s Association founder Jerome Stone, who passed away earlier this year. Fred Miller accepted the award on behalf of the Foundation at the opening plenary session, attended by more than 4,000 global researchers, donors and advocates. This year’s Alzheimer’s Conference also saw the release of promising new prevention research results.  To see a summary of news from the Conference, read the Alzheimer’s Association news release.

We are happy to accept this recognition as an innovative partner in the fight against Alzheimer’s. The Stone Award strengthens GHR’s credibility as we cultivate important public- and private-sector partners. To learn more about how GHR’s Health Initiative, contact us.

GHR Foundation is joining forces with industry, other philanthropic partners and the United States National Institutes of Health on a game-changing undertaking – the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. One important study GHR is supporting is The Mayo Clinic Study of Aging, which is working to define the impact of Alzheimer's on the population and develop a screening approach to identify those at risk.

View a case study on The Mayo Clinic's innovative research by clicking image below.

GHR supports innovative new approaches to address the impact of Alzheimer’s disease. If you are interested in learning more about GHR’s Health Initiative, contact us.

GHR Foundation is joining forces with philanthropic and industry partners to fund groundbreaking Alzheimer’s prevention research. One such partnership is the APOE trial, a prevention study that will launch by early 2016 and last five years. GHR has partnered with the Alzheimer’s Association and Fidelity Biosciences Research Initiative to provide $10 million in new research funding to support the study.

The API APOE4 trial, conducted by the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, is focused on how two new therapies may prevent or delay the development of Alzheimer’s symptoms in a population known to be at high risk for the disease because of their age and genetic status. The trial will test two different potential approaches to see if one or both can prevent the development of memory and thinking symptoms of Alzheimer’s.

The new funding will support three aspects of the API APOE4 trial, including the expansion of the Alzheimer’s Prevention Registry, the evaluation of two remote genetic counseling approaches and new scans including Tau PET imaging, amyloid PET imaging and FDG-PET imaging. If successful, the trial will not only to evaluate investigational prevention therapies, but will help find faster ways to evaluate promising prevention therapies in the future.

To learn more about how the Foundation is targeting funding to improve some of the largest research efforts in the field, contact us.

By Amy Goldman, GHR Foundation CEO & Chair

Today marks the one year anniversary of our founder, Gerald (Gerry) Rauenhorst’s passing. Appropriately, GHR staff are spending the day volunteering in the community as part of the fourth annual Founder’s Day. There could be no more fitting tribute to Gerry’s legacy.

Gerry was born in Olivia, Minn., in 1927, the son of tenant farmers and one of eight children. Gerry learned early practical lessons about the necessity of hard work and faith, anchoring his life on the words of St. Augustine: “I shall work as if everything depended on me; I shall pray as if everything depended on God.” He married his partner in life and philanthropy Hanky Schmoll in 1950 and spent the next six decades building a family and business, ever-mindful of their shared commitment to Catholic social values.

As I reflect on the last year, I know Gerry would be satisfied and content with what we have achieved. Together, with our valued partners, we have: 

• Awarded more than $17 million in transformative grants to 103 organizations worldwide, in the areas of health, education and global development.
• Supported breakthrough Alzheimer’s studies that have the potential to prove prevention is possible.
  
• Approved funding to bring City Connects to the Twin Cities, offering urban Catholic school students the support they need to truly succeed – whether that be housing support, food shelf access or tutoring.
  
• Continued to advance our focus on innovative global development grant making by partnering with Catholic sisters, advancing inter-religious action and focusing on children and families in Zambia and Cambodia. 
  
• Started a new chapter in GHR’s new offices, located in downtown Minneapolis, providing the ability to connect with grantees and partners in a powerful new way.
  

While the world is profoundly changed through his absence, I’m confident Gerry’s legacy lives on through the work we do. To learn more, visit our history and legacy page.

By Amy Goldman, GHR Foundation CEO & Chair

Public-private partnerships are not new, but governments are increasingly collaborating with small and mid-sized philanthropies like GHR Foundation to incubate new approaches that may be too risky to pursue without a partner. As an entrepreneurial grant maker, we see partnerships as a critical component of achieving our strategic objectives in health, education and global development.  

What do we mean when we talk about public-private partnerships?  They are a collaborative working relationship between government, the private sector and/or philanthropy.  It is in the intersection between diverse organizations that we see shared value. GHR Foundation, like many philanthropies, is focused on addressing systemic challenges. These tough issues require others—government, other donors and the private sector—to have a tangible investment in order to ensure lasting change. 

We know government agencies are looking to partner with others to achieve impact. For example, a recent briefing from the Brookings Institute noted the amount of USAID resources put toward public-private partnerships has gone from 8 percent to 46 percent under the leadership of outgoing Administrator Rajiv Shah.

Our Alzheimer’s work is a key example of how foundations can scale investment through partnership. Currently our $17 million in grant commitments is helping to fund more than $450 million in ground-breaking prevention research.  If successful, this research has the potential to compound GHR’s impact and turn the tide on Alzheimer’s – a goal that is brought much closer when industry, government, academia and philanthropy partner to accelerate results.

There’s an African proverb that says, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. This explains our primary motivation for engaging in public-private partnerships.  Benefits for leveraging partnership in our grant making include:

• Impact. Achieving something that would be impossible independently.
  
• Scale. Expanding models that are successful for larger impact.
  
• Sustainability & local ownership. Building local stakeholders into the process to generate genuine partnership which leads to long-term viability.
  
• Systems change. Transforming the context within which we are working, incorporating diverse actors, to achieve lasting solutions.
  
• Efficiency & efficacy. Improving coordination among distinct players for faster and more lasting results.
  
• Credibility. Ensuring a seat at the table and building a meaningful reputation on critical issues.
  

Public-private partnerships require foundations work to cultivate trust and invest staff time to achieve mutual success. However, tangible and intangible investments in partnerships pay considerable dividends over the long term.