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"We, at the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute, believe that with research, there is hope - hope that one day we will have all the pieces necessary to solve the puzzle that is human memory."
-Mark A Cochran, PhD, CEO & Executive Director
The Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute is a unique, independent, non-profit institute dedicated to the study of both human memory and memory disorders. BRNI is about imagining the possibilities, discovering the science, and curing disease. To do this, we have identified four crucial fund-raising priorities.
Enhancement of the Research Program
Building additional research programs is the next strategic step in the development of BRNI's research agenda. This involves the addition of new, world-class research programs as well as scientists that will complement our existing programs. Expanding the scientific enterprise will significantly advance the Institute's work toward the development of reliable diagnostics, effective treatments, and ultimately cures for neurological diseases. Funds are needed for construction costs to build out additional laboratory research areas in the new building to provide adequate space to assist in the recruitment for these new programs and scientists. In addition, funds are also needed to provide initial research support for these new programs.
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Bryostatin Clinical Trials
BRNI researchers have developed a new drug treatment that can potentially reduce the underlying cause of Alzheimer's disease, called neurodegeneration, and can treat the loss of memory. This new drug, bryostatin, is an extremely potent activator of an enzyme called PKC which greatly reduces the toxic amyloid protein called beta-amyloid and improves memory. BRNI was awarded patent protection for the use of bryostatin to treat Alzheimer's disease. Bryostatin has been tested in humans as a potential therapy for cancer and it has been found to be safe even though it is ineffective at fighting cancer. Drugs available today to treat Alzheimer's disease offer modest benefit to reduce the loss of recent memory. Often these benefits are transient and are accompanied by toxic side effects. None of these drugs actually treat this neurodegeneration. The Institute is planning to initiate as soon as possible the first FDA approved clinical trials with bryostatin to treat Alzheimer's disease patients. BRNI is seeking to raise additional funding to support the initial phases of these trials. Successful completion of early clinical trials will lead to a much larger study for which additional funding will be required. Further work is also planned for the testing of bryostatin formulations that have oral efficacy and/or facilitated brain access.
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Equipping the Future of BRNI
State-of-the-art equipment is necessary to provide accurate data in any type of research program. Funds are consistently needed to purchase new equipment to supplement existing apparatus as well as to enhance and further the science. It is only through obtaining precise results that the Institute is able to discover the essential scientific breakthroughs that will become effective treatments for patients.
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Annual Fund
The BRNI Annual Fund helps to fill a critical need to assist in the supporting of existing laboratories and research projects. Gifts to this fund are unconditional and will be used for the most pressing needs within BRNI as determined by the Executive Director. Some of the exciting research currently in progress at the Institute includes:
- Groundbreaking work on the interaction between copper and cholesterol in the formation of Alzheimer's disease.
- Studies that led to a recent patent for a new class of drugs to treat attention deficit disorder.
- Research on drugs that could be used in the treatment of depression.
- Potential new ways to accurately diagnose Alzheimer's disease.
- Studies that explain how large groups of neurons signal to each other during the memory process.
- Research on how head trauma activates critical enzymes that lead to memory loss.
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