Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is launching an international clinical trial aimed at preventing Alzheimer’s disease in people genetically destined to develop the illness at a young age. Unlike most other Alzheimer’s prevention trials, this one will enroll people before the disease has taken hold – up to 25 years before the expected onset of dementia.

Called the Primary Prevention Trial, the new study will investigate whether gantenerumab — an investigational antibody under development for Alzheimer’s disease by Roche and Genentech, a member of the Roche Group — can clear a key Alzheimer’s protein called amyloid beta, and slow or stop the disease. Amyloid is the chief component of plaques that dot the brains of people with the disease. Many scientists suspect the disease originates from the buildup of amyloid plaques in the brain that start to develop up to two decades before symptoms of dementia begin.

“Overwhelming evidence suggests that the most effective way to slow or stop amyloid beta is to prevent it from building up in the first place, but most of the drugs targeted to this protein have been tested in people who already have at least some early signs of the disease, such as memory loss – when the disease is far enough along that reducing amyloid alone isn’t likely to stop it,” said Eric McDade, DO, an associate professor of neurology and the trial’s principal investigator. “We’ll be recruiting participants as young as 18. In many ways, this trial will be a necessary test of the amyloid hypothesis, which has had a major influence on Alzheimer’s research and drug development over the past 30 years.”

The new trial involves families with rare genetic mutations that cause Alzheimer’s at a young age – typically in a person’s 50s, 40s or even 30s. A parent with such a mutation has a 50% chance of passing the genetic mutation to a child, and any child who inherits the mutation is all but guaranteed to develop symptoms of dementia near the same age as his or her parent. This certainty gives researchers an opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of drugs designed to prevent Alzheimer’s.

“It’s exciting to think of the valuable insights this groundbreaking trial will provide in the prevention of Alzheimer’s dementia,” said Fred Miller, GHR Foundation’s chief operating officer and Alzheimer’s program lead. “We’re pleased to partner boldly on the multiple DIAN-TU trials, all made possible by the strong collaboration between academic researchers, government, industry, philanthropy and the DIAN families themselves.”​

Read more.

From The Monthly Grind, Official Newsletter for the Association of Sisterhoods of Kenya:

One of the most common contributors to the vulnerability of children around the world is separation from the love, care, and protection of their parents and families. Loss of parental care has many causes. Millions of children globally have already been separated or are at risk of being separated from their families due to poverty, diseases, disability, death, abuse, or any other cause. 

Kwetu Home of Peace is one of the Charitable Care Institution (CCI) allied to AOSK-Catholic Care for Children in Kenya (AOSK-CCCK) that rescues, rehabilitates and re-integrates street connected boys back to their families. On 8th October 2021, Kwetu Home of Peace held a thanks-giving mass to celebrate the reintegration of 34 boys whose parents and guardians had came to pick them home after a process of rehabilitation at the Centre. The celebration brought together all the 34 boys  who were being re-inserted to their families , the other boys still under rehabilitation, parents, guardians and invited guests.

Sr. Jane Rose Nyongesa, the director of Kwetu Home of Peace, in her opening remarks, invited the children, parents and guest to the thanksgiving celebration and noted, “Today we are gathered here to celebrate the 34 boys who have successfully finished rehabilitation and are being reintegrated back to their families. The journey began in 2018, when we rescued these boys from the street and committed ourselves to rehabilitate and reintegrate them. Today as an institution, we are happy that parents are here to take their children and continue nurturing them, loving and raising them up. The family is the most Important Institution in the children upbringing, and therefore it’s our joy, the boys are re-united back with their families.”

Mrs. Mary Anyango, a mother who was reunited with her son, Moses Otieno noted that, “As a mother it gives me joy and happiness to see my son after 5 years of separation, the reunification process today has given me a second chance to extend my motherly love and care towards Moses.” On his side Moses Otieno alluded, “During the few bonding times, we had with my mother, it feels excited when I have someone I can refer to as mother and the affection given by my mother which cannot be compared to anything else.” 

Sr. Delvin Mukhwana (DHM) the Project Manager for AOSK-CCCK while giving her speech noted that, a scriptural basis for family care is bolstered by a strong academic evidence base, which consistently finds that children who are cared for by families are more likely to thrive than those in residential care. Residential cares are often promoted as more adequately providing material needs than some families’ do, without recognizing the vital social and emotional role that family relationships play in a child’s life. Regardless of the quality of care in residential settings, children often face isolation, loss of a sense of belonging, identity struggles, and difficulty-maintaining connections given the lengthy periods of separation from their families, therefore Sr. Delvin Mukhwana encouraged the parents to be the cornerstone of upbringing their children in a family set up.

​It is high time for all of us to stand up for the care reforms for the children by promoting families values, positive parenting and family support so that children are not separated from their families because of basic needs that can be received from families, so that, the rest of the family is enhanced in remaining together, than taking children in orphanages and rescue centres for years being held hostage in the name of support. The Catholic social teaching urges that, parents be supported in their effort to raise well-formed, healthy children. AOSK-CCCK program is funded by GHR Foundation.

C2N Diagnostics’ Alzheimer's blood test was introduced into the clinic in October of 2020, a breakthrough healthcare innovation for patients, advocates, and physicians who have long awaited an easy to administer test that can help them better understand Alzheimer’s disease. C2N developed this groundbreaking test based upon longtime GHR partner Dr. Randall Bateman’s initial discovery of how to measure amyloid proteins in blood, validating its results in a clinical trial of 686 patients. 

From Fierce Biotech:

A study of C2N Diagnostics’ blood test showed it could help predict which people may be at an increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease based on the level of amyloid proteins found in the brain. 
Typically, measuring those plaques has required PET scans, spinal taps or biopsies for cerebrospinal fluid to help spot these biological signs, which are thought to precede cognitive decline.
The study—which received funding from the National Institutes of Health and drugmaker Eisai and was presented at the Clinical Trials on Alzheimer's Disease conference—showed C2N’s PrecivityAD blood test was 81% accurate in predicting the levels of amyloid buildup that would be seen in a PET scan.

"Blood-based screening is a giant leap forward in detecting changes in the brain among people who do not yet show memory loss symptoms," Reisa Sperling, M.D., co-principal investigator for the study, said in a statement.

Aside from its potential use for screening the general public, C2N expects its blood test to help accelerate the recruitment of prospective Alzheimer’s patients into clinical trials for new therapies—a task that has traditionally been time-consuming and expensive, relying on more subjective examinations of cognitive symptoms. 

"New blood test technology can help identify those more likely to have Alzheimer's disease changes in their brains, which enables them to enroll in prevention or treatment trials as early as possible,” added Sperling, who serves as director of the Center for Alzheimer Research and Treatment at Brigham and Women's Hospital at Harvard Medical School.

Going forward, a clinical study that aims to enroll more than 1,100 participants will employ the Fierce 15 winner’s blood test to help screen people as young as 55 years old for high amyloid levels. 
Conducted in partnership with the Alzheimer's Clinical Trial Consortium and Biogen, the placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial will examine the ability of Eisai’s lecanemab antibody treatment to help clear those plaques from the brain over four-plus years.
​
The Japanese Big Pharma has a longstanding development agreement for lecanemab with Biogen, whose controversial Aduhelm therapy for Alzheimer's disease received an accelerated approval from the FDA this past June. The regulatory nod was based on data tracking the destruction of amyloid plaques instead of a proven ability to slow cognitive decline—relying on the hypothesis that those protein buildups eventually coalesce into neurodegenerative symptoms. 

However, many other investigational therapies chasing amyloid's connection to Alzheimer's have failed to cross the regulatory finish line and demonstrate clinical benefit. Some proponents say success may be found in treating affected patients earlier, before the disease takes hold—and a more accessible screening tool such as C2N's blood test may make it easier to see whether that theory holds up.

This September, C2N expanded into a new CLIA lab testing facility in its home of St. Louis to help boost its clinical screening services. The PrecivityAD diagnostic, available in 49 states minus New York, employs liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry techniques to identify amyloid plaques and other proteins captured in a blood sample. The prescription test is intended for use in individuals experiencing memory and thinking issues.

From La Jolla Institute for Immunology: 

New research published in Science magazine will guide the development of more effective COVID-19 antibody therapies and help scientists develop effective vaccines to address emerging viral variants.

​“We were able to map the geography of Spike and understand which antibodies bind to which footprints. This map provides a reference to help predict  which antibodies are still effective against SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern like the currently surging Delta variant,” says LJI Professor Erica Ollmann Saphire, Ph.D., who leads the global effort behind this research, called the Coronavirus Immunotherapeutic Consortium (CoVIC).

CoVIC is a global, academic-industry, non-profit research collaboration that brings together scientists from around the world to understand which antibodies are most effective against the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, and to streamline and accelerate the research pipeline for antibody-based therapeutics needed against SARS-CoV-2. GHR joined the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in supporting the global partnership, headquartered at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI). ​

Learn more here. 

In 2019, things were looking dire for Risen Christ, a dual-immersion K-8 Catholic school located in Minneapolis’ Powderhorn Park neighborhood. School administrators and members of the school board were seriously considering closing the school down. It was an all-too-common discussion at a time when many Catholic schools experiencing similar challenges were closing at an alarming rate.

Yet through creativity and community collaboration, Risen Christ has remained afloat. This case study details the story of how, offering tools for funders that are considering helping struggling institutions pull themselves out from under the burden of debt.

Read the full case study here:

Inspired by Pope Francis, the Global Solidarity Fund is a network of partners supporting innovative public-private partnership among and beyond Catholic networks that place the most vulnerable at the center of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

With support from GHR Foundation and others, GSF is connecting people, ideas and networks to build an inclusive economy, to amplify the leadership of Catholic sisters, and to shine a light on the development contributions made by the Catholic Church.

On September 25th at Global Citizen Live, alongside world leaders, activists and artists who are playing leading roles in the post-pandemic recovery, GSF shared their commitment to raise $100 million to solve the challenges faced by the world’s most vulnerable communities. 

Learn more about the Global Solidarity Fund.

From the World Economic Forum:

• We have a moral and economic imperative to eliminate systemic racism and racial injustices.
• The World Economic Forum and GHR Foundation have launched a new partnership to advance racial and social justice, starting within our organizations.
• From 20-23 September, the Sustainable Development Impact Summit explores how multi-stakeholder partnerships can shape a sustainable, inclusive and just recovery.

The last 18 months have upended much of what was considered “business as usual” around the world. To be more precise, they have brought to light deep inequities that have plagued humanity for centuries – economic, gender and racial injustices, included.

Our world could see its first trillionaire in 25 years, while one in nine people go to bed hungry every night. Lower income groups, women and Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities have borne the brunt of pandemic-related slowdowns, with many social advances from previous decades showing worrying signs of reversal.

If there is a silver lining to this global crisis, it is that inequity is finally centre stage in global policy debates. “Leave no one behind” is the rallying cry of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the 10th Sustainable Development Goal aims to reduce inequalities based on income, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, race, class, ethnicity, religion and opportunity.

Just as we see eliminating inequities as a moral imperative, it is also in all of our economic interests. For instance, in the United States, racism is estimated to cost the American economy at least $1 trillion a year in lost consumption and investment. Systemic racism is not exclusive to the US, nor is the opportunity to realise the full potential of all people in this pivotal moment.

As part of this year’s Sustainable Development Impact Summit, we will explore this question and three broad areas of inequity:

• reviving and transforming the metrics of economic success,
• improving both the quality and quantity of jobs and
• advancing education, skills, and learning opportunities.

​
Underpinning advancement in these three areas is improving efforts relating to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and social justice more broadly, which is addressed within the session "Tackling Inequities in a Decade of Action".

To this end, we are thrilled to be embarking on a new partnership between our two organizations – the World Economic Forum and GHR Foundation, a global philanthropy based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

We know that race takes different forms in different cultural contexts, but racism — particularly discrimination against Black and Brown people — remains persistent and pervasive in every community, country and continent. If injustice and racial inequality are to be tackled effectively, we must first name and acknowledge them. Only in doing so can barriers to the inclusion of marginalised groups be addressed in global systems, organizations and the diverse communities we serve.
In May 2020, the movement for Black lives was reignited around the world. It became a catalyst for many organizations — including the Forum and GHR — to reflect on and highlight inequities that exist both outside and within our organizations.

Professionals of color and minority ethnic backgrounds continue to face racial injustice and inequity in the workplace, and they have been severely underrepresented in leadership. For example, there have only been 15 Black CEOs over the course of the 62 years of the Fortune 500’s existence, and currently only 1% of Fortune 500 CEOs are Black.

As leaders of learning organizations, we recognize how much we don’t know. Still, we embark on this novel collaboration — one that will centre racial and social justice across multiple Forum teams, platforms and issues — embracing the discomfort of not knowing and a commitment for learning and action.

Together, with values-driven business, government and civil society leaders, we intend to build on the global movement to advance racial and social justice by developing and showcasing new models, embedding public-private partnerships and action, and engaging communities in meaningful collaborations. We already have 60 major multinational corporations from around the world signed on to fundamentally change how they think about race within their businesses — such as how they hire people, treat employees, think about their supply chains and more generally envision their strategies.

We believe this is only the beginning of an exciting journey. We invite you to learn and take action alongside us.

Saadia Zahidi, Managing Director, World Economic Forum
Amy Goldman, Chief Executive Officer and Chair, GHR Foundation

A recent evaluation of Catholic Care for Children in Uganda (CCCU), a project of the Association of Religious in Uganda, shows promising results for children and families. 

Catholic sisters and brothers have become champions of care reform, taking strides to see that children grow up in families or family-like environments instead of institutions. Nearly 1,000 children have been re-united or placed with families with support from Catholic sisters and brothers trained in social work and case management and resourced with state-of-the-art tools. This model has been replicated by Catholic sisters in Zambia and Kenya. The example of sisters from Africa spurred the International Union of Superiors General (UISG/Rome) to launch Catholic Care for Children International in October 2020, to support Catholic sisters across the globe in efforts to reduce recourse to institutional care for children in favor of family- and community-based approaches. 

To more fully understand the results of this work and how they were achieved, in 2020 GHR Foundation commissioned a midterm evaluation of CCCU with hopes it would inform, encourage, and inspire.

Read the full report here:

Over 1.5 million children lost a parent, custodial grandparent, or other relative who cared for them during the first 14 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, a first global study estimates.

From The Lancet:

"The COVID-19 pandemic priorities have focused on prevention, detection, and response. Beyond morbidity and mortality, pandemics carry secondary impacts, such as children orphaned or bereft of their caregivers. Such children often face adverse consequences, including poverty, abuse, and institutionalization. We provide estimates for the magnitude of this problem resulting from COVID-19 and describe the need for resource allocation."

Read the full study here.

BridgeBuilder 2017 Top Idea Peace Direct presents a new report exploring the extent of structural racism and power imbalances that exist within the humanitarian, development and peacebuilding sectors. 

Compiled through extensive research and consultation with 158 activists, decision- makers, academics, journalists and practitioners across the globe, the report explores how structural racism manifests itself in their work, and how they envision a decolonised system that is truly inclusive and responds to their needs. 

Watch the report launch and read the full report here.