The Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement today announced the distribution of the five women-based grants to leading researchers dedicated to answering the question why Alzheimer’s disease disproportionately affects women.
The inaugural grant recipients include:
• Alzheimer’s Association, Women’s Alzheimer’s Research Initiative
• Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham & Women’s Hospital
• Cure Alzheimer’s Fund
• Dr. Roberta Brinton, Ph.D., Center for Innovation in Brain Science at University of Arizona
• Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health
The grants were funded by proceeds from the groundbreaking Move for Minds experience, a partnership between Maria Shriver, Equinox Sports Clubs and The Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement.
Building on that success, The Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement and Equinox Sports Clubs announced next year’s date – June 4, 2017. Dallas and Miami will join the Sports Clubs hosting the groundbreaking experience including New York, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Francisco, Boston and Washington, DC.
Move for Minds is an unprecedented gathering of superstar experts from the worlds of brain research, nutrition, exercise, caregiving and meditation, who believe funding brain research on women will help solve the Alzheimer’s epidemic.
“Move for Minds is a very successful program for Equinox and we are thrilled to once again partner with Maria Shriver to challenge the public and to become more aware of both their cognitive health and physical health,” said Equinox CEO Harvey Spevak. “High performance living is about engaging your mind and your body. Move for Minds does both and also raises funds for women-based research to benefit The Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement.”
“I am so proud that everyday people stepped forward to raise funds for women’s brain research. Their fundraising will make possible groundbreaking research in labs across the country conducted by leaders who I believe will answer the question why every 66 seconds someone develops Alzheimer’s and why two thirds of them are women,” said Maria Shriver. “In advance of Giving Tuesday, we are announcing Challenge 66 – a grass-roots campaign to spread awareness, raise funds and get America engaged in what I call the ultimate women’s empowerment issue.”
“So many scientists have been working for years to understand Alzheimer’s disease and its underlying pathologies. Cure Alzheimer’s Fund is extremely grateful to Maria Shriver and her team for their commitment to generate awareness of the disease and for their very generous donation towards our research efforts to understand why women get the disease at a much higher rate,” said Dr. Rudy Tanzi, Chair of the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund Research Consortium and Director of Genetics and Aging Research Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital.
“I am thrilled to have received the generous grant from The Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement and excited to use it to advance our big data project to discover therapeutics to prevent, delay and treat Alzheimer’s in women and men,” said Dr. Roberta Brinton. “It’s an honor to be recognized by Maria Shriver and The Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement who have taken the lead in raising awareness about the disproportionate impact Alzheimer’s has on women and the need for more gender-based research.”
“We are so grateful for the generous grant from Maria Shriver and The Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement, which will allow our talented scientists at the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital to advance their gender-based neurologic disease research. The results of this work have the potential to lead to breakthroughs in Alzheimer’s disease and will provide important insights on how and why it disproportionally affects women,” said Dr. Howard Weiner and Dr. Dennis Selkoe, Co-Directors of the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
The Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement grants were awarded and Challenge 66 was launched in November, which Ronald Reagan designated National Alzheimer’s Awareness and Family Caregivers month in 1983. Back then, fewer than two million Americans suffered from the disease, which now affects more than 5.4 million Americans. The majority of them are women and no one knows why. The Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement is determined to find the answer.
To take Challenge 66 and sign up for Move for Minds 2017 on Saturday, June 4 visit TheWomensAlzheimersMovement.org.
