Since its inception in 2012, Part the Cloud has raised more than $65 million accelerating 60 high risk, high reward research projects thanks to our generous supporters and community. Part the Cloud researchers have gone on to receive more than $1 billion in follow-on funding.

Hear from Maria Carrillo, Ph.D., chief science officer, Alzheimer’s Association, about the impact of this milestone and what it means to the field. 

The latest Impact Report features the stories of two Part the Cloud researchers, the impact Part the Cloud funding has on their work, and how they are expanding their studies to move the needle in Alzheimer’s and dementia research.

Krista L. Lanctôt, Ph.D., Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Canada, has received two Part the Cloud grants. She is an example of how the Part the Cloud peer-review process and input from world-renowned Alzheimer’s and dementia experts accelerated her work, and provided resources at the right time.

Dr. Lanctôt is a proponent for preventive and personalized care, including exercise. Her second study is looking at oxidative stress which seemingly may be higher in patients with mild vascular cognitive impairment. Funding from Part the Cloud is enabling her team to see if oxidative stress is actually in the brain, not just the blood, and which areas of the brain may be affected.

For Peter Ljubenkov, M.D., University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), the initial support and funding through Part the Cloud was followed by millions of dollars in additional funding  from the National Institute on Aging. Working with Part the Cloud also allowed Dr. Ljubenkov and other researchers to pursue a multisite trial design.

In this instance, all the sites have specific and focused expertise on frontotemporal dementia, such as Mayo Clinic, University of Pennsylvania, Houston Methodist, Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, and Northwestern University, in addition to UCSF. These sites are affiliated with the NIH-funded ALLFTD multicenter cooperative study, and have collaborative experience collecting data in a standardized way, which is important to advance knowledge and research.

Read more in the latest Impact Report.

Questions remain as to why Latinos are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s and if/how they experience the disease differently. These are questions that cannot be answered without engaging Latinos in medical/scientific research, underscoring the importance of implementing culturally tailored clinical trial recruitment and retention strategies for diverse populations. At the third Latinos and Alzheimer’s Symposium, Part the Cloud-funded researcher Sudha Seshadri, M.D., presented “Promising Non-Amyloid Treatments for Alzheimer Disease: in Latinos and others,” which focused on the diversity of targets and therapies in development.

Dr. Seshadri is active in Sars-COV-2 research and is one of the primary investigators of the International Brain Study: SARS-CoV-2 Impact on Behavior and Cognition, in which scientific leaders, including the Alzheimer's Association and representatives from more than 25 countries, are working together with technical guidance from the World Health Organization to better understand the long-term impact of SARS-CoV-2 (also known as novel coronavirus, COVID-19) on the brain.

Dr. Seshadri’s Part the Cloud grant supports the team’s study about rapamycin, an FDA-approved therapy for organ transplants. Rapamycin is a drug that targets a biological pathway called mTOR (mammalian Target of Rapamycin), which impacts a variety of cell functions including cell growth, metabolism and cell death. Read more about Dr. Seshadri’s Part the Cloud-funded project.

Advocates from all 50 states turned Capitol Hill purple on May 17, meeting with policymakers to directly and personally communicate our advocacy goals to members of Congress. The voices of those on Capitol Hill were amplified by advocates in communities back home. More than 700 volunteer advocates from across the country spoke with federal policymakers to advance our goals and improve the lives of all those impacted by Alzheimer’s and all other dementia. You can join Alzheimer’s Association advocates in growing support for the two newest priorities by taking action here.