NIA and McKnight Brain Research Foundation
Join Forces to Support Cognitive Aging Research
The Research Partnership in Cognitive Aging is a newly launched
public-private effort to support current and emerging research
on age-related changes in the brain and cognition. Jointly funded
by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), one of the National Institutes
of Health (NIH), and the McKnight Brain Research Foundation, through
the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH), this
effort is expected to award an estimated $20 million in research
grants over the next five years. The research partnership is aimed
at expanding understanding of how we think, learn and remember
with age and at developing interventions to maintain cognitive
health as we grow older.
"Mental declines typically seen in older people are not necessarily
inevitable," said NIA Director Richard J. Hodes, M.D. "This partnership
will support two research initiatives. One of these initiatives
will help define healthy cognitive aging on every level — from the
molecular and cellular to the physiological and behavioral. Such
research is vital to developing evidence-based interventions to
delay or halt cognitive decline. The other initiative will fund
pilot clinical trials, laying the groundwork for future full-scale
clinical trials."
The McKnight Brain Research Foundation will donate $1 million
annually for five years; the NIA will fund and award the peer-reviewed
research grants. NIA is accepting online applications for two funding
opportunities: RFA-AG-09-009, Interventions to Remediate Age-Related
Cognitive Decline (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-AG-09-009.html)
and RFA-AG-09-010, Neural and Behavioral Profiles of Cognitive
Aging (http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-AG-09-010.html).
NIA will accept applications until Nov. 3, 2008, and anticipates
awarding the grants in mid-2009.
The partnership builds on the momentum of the Cognitive Aging
Summit, an October 2007 conference in Bethesda, Md., that highlighted
cutting-edge research on age-related brain and cognitive changes.
That meeting, convened by the NIA under a grant from the McKnight
Brain Research Foundation to the FNIH, brought together 250 scientists
from diverse disciplines to discuss critical questions in age-related
brain and cognitive research and explore future avenues of research.
"The McKnight Brain Research Foundation is excited to work with
the NIA to advance the scientific understanding in this area," said
J. Lee Dockery, M.D., McKnight Brain Research Foundation board
trustee. "The vision of the McKnight Brain Research Foundation
is to improve the quality of life through the understanding and
alleviation of age-related memory loss. This research partnership
with the NIA, through the FNIH, allows us to leverage both public
and private resources to raise the level of awareness of the importance
of cognitive health in the aging and hasten research discoveries
leading to clinical interventions which will prevent or delay age-related
cognitive decline."
The NIA leads the federal government effort conducting and supporting
research on the biomedical and social and behavioral aspects of
aging, including Alzheimer's disease and age-related cognitive
decline. For information on age-related cognitive health and dementia,
visit the NIA's Alzheimer's Disease Education and Referral (ADEAR)
Center at www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers or call 1-800-438-4380. For
more general information on research and aging, go to www.nia.nih.gov.
The McKnight Brain Research Foundation, based in Orlando, Fla.,
supports brain research to alleviate the specific influence of
age-related memory loss. For more information about the foundation,
go to http://www.tmbrf.org.
The FNIH identifies and develops innovative public-private partnerships
involving industry, academia and the philanthropic community to
support a broad portfolio of biomedical research programs that
complement and enhance NIH priorities and activities. For more
information about this congressionally chartered non-profit, 501(c)(3)
corporation, go to www.fnih.org.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's
Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and
Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting
and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research,
and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both
common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and
its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
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