Funding Allows Landmark Alzheimer's Research to Begin Latest Phase

NCIRE, the Veterans Health Research Institute, today announced a major award to advance Alzheimer’s disease research.

The Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), led by Michael Weiner, MD, received funding for a critical third phase of the initiative. The five-year award includes $40 million from the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health, and an anticipated $20 million in private contributions through the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH).

Now in its 12th year, ADNI is one of the largest public-private partnerships in Alzheimer’s research and the largest observational study in the world. NCIRE and Dr. Weiner received the first award for the ADNI initiative in 2004 and ADNI2 was subsequently funded in 2010. This landmark study —focused on developing and refining biomarker tools needed to mark the progress of Alzheimer’s disease—is having a profound impact on the understanding of the events that cause Alzheimer’s, including those that occur early in the course of the disease. This research is critical for veterans, a population which research has shown is at much greater risk for early onset of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

Dr. Weiner, of the SFVAMC and UCSF, has been conducting research for over 50 years and has over 800 published articles attributed to his work within and outside of the Alzheimer’s field.  For more information, please see the NIH press release here.  

Learn more about the ADNI project here.

Learn more about the Brain Health Registry here.