UA Center for Innovation in Brain Science Awarded Maria Shriver's The Women's Alzheimer's Movement Grant

Dec. 5, 2018

Led by Roberta Brinton, PhD, the Center for Innovation in Brain Science at the University of Arizona Health Sciences has received one of seven research grants awarded by WAM to leading scientific institutions. The grant will allow the Center to continue i

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The University of Arizona Health Sciences Center for Innovation in Brain Science — led by inaugural director Roberta Diaz Brinton, PhD — has received one of seven research grants from Maria Shriver’s The Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement™ to leading scientific institutions seeking to understand why Alzheimer’s disease disproportionately affects more women than men.

Roberta Diaz Brinton, PhD

Roberta Diaz Brinton, PhD

The UAHS Center for Innovation in Brain Science has received grants annually from The Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement since its award program began in 2016. This year’s $100,000 grant will permit further exploration into the impact of hormone therapy on Alzheimer’s disease in women, as related to the impact breast cancer therapies might have on developing Alzheimer’s disease.

“It is an honor to receive a third grant from The Women's Alzheimer's Movement to build upon the research the Center for Innovation in Brain Sciences began in 2016,” Dr. Brinton said. “The grants allow us to research and discover critical information for women considering the long-term impact of hormone interventions and how it impacts their risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.”

Arizona is expected to see a 43-percent increase in Alzheimer’s disease by 2025, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. In just 7 years, that means as many as 200,000 Arizonans age 65 and older will be living with the disease, which disproportionately affects women.

Dr. Brinton, a leading neuroscientist in the field of Alzheimer’s disease, joined the UA Health Sciences in May 2016 from the University of Southern California. She is accelerating the UA’s innovations in brain science to bring the power of precision medicine to personalize therapeutics to cure neurological disease.

In addition to serving as inaugural director of the UAHS Center for Innovation in Brain Science, she is a professor of pharmacology and neurology at the UA College of Medicine – Tucson and a member of the UA BIO5 Institute.

The Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement research grants were announced in the news release “Maria Shriver’s Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement Awards Seven Grants to Accelerate Gender-Based Research in Alzheimer’s Disease.”

To arrange an interview with Dr. Brinton, please contact Heather Liber at 520-626-4681 or hrsim@email.arizona.edu

About the University of Arizona Health Sciences

The University of Arizona Health Sciences is the statewide leader in biomedical research and health professions training. The UA Health Sciences includes the UA Colleges of Medicine (Phoenix and Tucson), Nursing, Pharmacy and Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, with main campus locations in Tucson and the growing Phoenix Biomedical Campus in downtown Phoenix. From these vantage points, the UA Health Sciences reaches across the state of Arizona and the greater Southwest to provide cutting-edge health education, research, patient care and community outreach services. A major economic engine, the UA Health Sciences employs approximately 4,000 people, has approximately 800 faculty members and garners more than $140 million in research grants and contracts annually. For more information: uahs.arizona.edu (Follow us: Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | LinkedIn | Instagram)