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Advancing Alzheimer’s research: Bill Gates’ $50 million investment in the DDF

 

 

Today Bill Gates announced that he is personally investing $50 million in the Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF), a collaborative charity-industry-government fund, which aims to identify novel drugs for the treatment of dementia. There is currently no cure or effective treatment for dementia, of which Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type. With increasing life expectancies, this disease is set to rise exponentially; thus, there is an urgent requirement for innovative dementia research to identify new treatments.

In his video and accompanying statement, Bill Gates explains the importance of  Alzheimer’s research. Speaking from personal experience, he describes the effects of this disease on families, in addition to highlighting the socio-economic burden on the healthcare system and wider society.

 

 

Bill Gates emphasizes the key areas of Alzheimer’s research, including understanding the underlying pathology, improving diagnostics and disease monitoring, clinical trials and collaboration to improve the analytics of the data produced.

This is excellent news for dementia research, which is often underfunded relative to its detrimental personal, social and economic effects compared with other types of disease. Read Bill Gates’ statement here and learn more about the DDF from its Chief Scientific Office, Dr Tetsu Maruyama.

 

 

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Written by Cally Cameron Smith