WA Post Profiles Global’s DS-Alzheimer’s Work

Gretchen Josephson with her book Bus Girl

The Global Down Syndrome Foundation (Global), the Linda Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome (Crnic Institute) and the national Alzheimer’s Association co-sponsored a seminal workshop calling attention to the connection between Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease. This important workshop was profiled in The Washington Post.

The workshop is one of many collaborations between Global, the Crnic Institute and the national Alzheimer’s Association. In 2013, the three organizations established the “Down Syndrome – Alzheimer’s Disease Investigator Program.” $2.2 million has been committed to this effort so far with initial awards funding promising research to the following scientists:

Eitan Okun, Ph.D., Israel
Ann-Charlotte Granholm, Ph.D., SC
Huaxi Xu, Ph.D., CA
Karen Chang, Ph.D., CA
Donna Wilcock, Ph.D., KY

Crnic Institute Director of Alzheimer’s Research
Dr. Huntington Potter

Global and the Crnic Institute have made the important connection between Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease a priority. In 2012 the Crnic Institute hired Huntington Potter, Ph.D., international expert in Alzheimer’s disease who discovered the mechanistic relationship between Alzheimer’s and Down syndrome. Dr. Potter has been involved with the national Alzheimer’s Association since 1987.

The Crnic Institute and Global work closely with key scientific leadership at the national Alzheimer’s Association including Maria C. Carrillo, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer and Dean M. Hartley, Ph.D., Director of Science Initiatives, Medical and Scientific Relations. The Alzheimer’s Association was key in bringing together experts from around the world to the Down Syndrome-Alzheimer’s Disease Workshop including representatives from the National Institute on Aging and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Sponsors of the Down Syndrome-Alzheimer’s Disease Workshop