FILE PHOTO: Senior citizen.
LOGAN – Several Utah State University researchers studying Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia are receiving a total of $350,000 from USU’s Alzheimers Disease and Dementia Research Center (ADRC).
Beth Fauth, who is ADRC director, said the center’s mission is to promote Alzheimers research in the state.
“This last legislative session we received funding to support this work. So, in this first year, we put out requests for proposals from USU faculty,” Fauth explained. “By next year we will be including other research institutions.
“What we’re doing is asking for requests for what they need, whether it’s equipment or student support or funding for participants so they can bring people in to do studies with live individuals.”
The center is new, opening last July, and is housed within the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services. Utah legislator Dan Johnson, representing Utah House District 3, sponsored the concept of the center and funding was approved in March, 2022.
“There are ADRC’s across the country,” Fauth added. “Mostly they are funded by the National Institutes of Health, so they are federally funded and are more clinically based, so they’re more like medical centers. Ours is a little different.
“We’re modeling some work that’s being done in Arizona where it’s not at this point a clinical center for diagnosis. But what we’re trying to do is really promote research.”
Fauth said these projects, awarded to nine USU researchers, will advance the current understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and create opportunities for future research and the development of treatments.