Good Ventures awarded a grant of $5,300,000 over four years to Washington University to support research on Alzheimer’s disease by Professor Brendan Lucey, Professor David Holtzman, and colleagues. Professors Lucey and Holtzman will conduct a clinical trial on the impact of treatment with the sleep-inducing drug suvorexant on the progression of early-stage Alzheimer’s disease in humans. In a previous study on mice, Professor Holtzman found that a suvorexant-like treatment reduced the accumulation of amyloid plaques in the brain, a key indicator of Alzheimer’s disease. The professors’ findings may have important implications for Alzheimer’s treatment.
Good Ventures, with support from Open Philanthropy, has been investigating how best to fund scientific research that might help reduce the future burden of Alzheimer’s disease.