Posted on July 21, 2004 at 8:40 a.m.
BIRMINGHAM, AL — The School of Medicine at UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) has received a $5 million grant to support research in age-related memory loss from the McKnight Brain Research Foundation. The grant will establish the Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute within the university and will be housed in the Richard C. and Annette N. Shelby Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Building, scheduled to open in 2005.
The grant will also establish the Evelyn F. McKnight Endowed Professorship for Learning and Memory in Aging, to be held by Michael J. Friedlander, Ph.D., chair of the department of neurobiology and director of the Civitan International Research Center at UAB.
“The population is growing daily, and by the year 2030 it is estimated that nearly 25 percent of Americans will be 65 or older, with millions suffering some form of memory loss,” says J. Lee Dockery, M.D., a trustee of the McKnight Brain Research Foundation. “Finding the answer to this important healthcare problem could benefit every member of our society.”
Institute scientists will investigate the fundamental mechanisms of memory in the human brain, focusing particularly on problems of age-related memory loss. The long-term objective is to translate basic biomedical research into treatments, medications or other techniques that can minimize the effects of aging on learning and memory.
“The partnership between the McKnight Brain Research Foundation and our department of neurobiology has enormous potential to advance our understanding and treatment of age-related memory loss,” says William B. Deal, M.D. vice president and dean of the School of Medicine. “We thank the trustees of the foundation for their investment in UAB as we explore this significant health issue.”
“The McKnight Brain Institute and the endowed professorship will help us achieve our goal of expanding and improving UAB’s research capability and productivity as well as furthering our position as an internationally recognized research institution,” says UAB president Carol Z. Garrison, Ph.D.
Established in 1999 by Evelyn Franks McKnight, the McKnight Brain Research Foundation supports research toward the understanding of memory and the specific influences of aging on memory. Evelyn, who was a nurse, shared her husband’s belief that “research is the key to tomorrow.” She and William L. McKnight, who served as chairman of the board of the Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing (3M) Corporation for 59 years prior to his death in 1978, were particularly interested in the effects of aging on memory. She continued to support his interest in brain research and memory loss until her death in 1999.
The grant funds will provide for faculty salaries, purchase of laboratory instrumentation, pilot research funding, and other scholarly activities related to their research and study.