New Facility for Alzheimer's Research

The Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute (BRNI) located on the campus of West Virginia University opened up a new research center on Friday. The institute, founded in honor of U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller's mother, dediacted this new $30 million center for research work on Alzheimer's disease.

Dr. Daniel Alkon, Scientific Director of BRNI said, "This Forum allows us the opportunity to communicate and disseminate an understanding of how memory works and how it becomes dysfunctional through groundbreaking research that will inform and learn new insights into advancing the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of memory disorders."

The center is a three-level complex and stretches over a 78,000 square foot area of land. It will be providing state-of-the-art laboratory space and support research activities for 125 scientists and researchers working on the mission to find a treatment for Alzheimer's disease and other memory disorders.

This is the first-ever International Forum on Memory and Memory Disorders and will highlight the work of nine celebrated scientists whose research has advanced the study of the aging brain, Alzheimer's disease, and patients suffering from memory loss and memory disorders.

Senator Jay Rockefeller said, "This international forum will begin a dialogue of science and information that will further the research and offer new hope. And, I'm proud to say, our new $30 million BRNI research facility will allow the Institute to expand its important work as part of this global scientific effort."

The prestigious list of scientists chosen to share their research is an international mix of experts from Switzerland, to Harvard Medical School, to West Virginia University.

Established in 1999, BRNI is the only non-profit independent institution dedicated to both an understanding of how human memory works and advancing new discoveries that can identify, treat and repair damages from diseases and disorders that impact human memory.

In one of his statements, Rockfeller said that his research will have an impact on the 46,000 West Virginians and their families suffering from Alzheimer's disease. It will have global significance to the 5.1 million people in the United States, and the more than 26 million people around the world who are also suffering, he added.

The center dedication ceremony held yesterday was followed by the unveiling of a 42 cent first class stamp to raise national awaereness for Alzheimer's by the U.S. Postal Service Board.