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| Community Budget Issue Requests - Tracking Id #1478 |
| University of Florida Alzheimer's Research Initiative |
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| Requester: |
William. G. Luttge, Ph.D. |
Organization: |
University of Florida |
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| Project Title: |
University of Florida Alzheimer's Research Initiative |
Date Submitted |
1/14/2003 3:55:07 PM |
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| Sponsors: |
Smith |
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| Statewide Interest: |
| Care of Florida's burgeoning aging population. |
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| Recipient: |
University of Florida/McKnight Brain Institute |
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Contact: |
William. G. Luttge, Ph.D. (Exec. Director) |
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Post Office Box 100015 |
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Contact Phone: |
(352) 392-0490 |
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Gainesville 326100015 |
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| Counties: |
{Statewide} |
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| Gov't Entity: |
Yes |
Private Organization (Profit/Not for Profit): |
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| Project Description: |
| Request for $1,000,000 in recurring funds for Alzheimer's disease research at the McKnight Brain Institute at the University of Florida. Non-recurring funding of $1,000,000 was provided in 2002-2003.
Alzheimer's disease is the most common dementing illness, affecting an estimated 10% of those over 65 years of age and 50% of those over 85. With the rapid growth in Florida's elderly population, it comes as no surprise that of the 4 million Americans currently affected with Alzheimer's, over 10% reside in Florida. Unless something is done to stem this epidemic, it is estimated that by the middle of this century, as many as 1.5 million Floridians will suffer from Alzheimer's at a cost to the state of perhaps $40 billion. Clearly beyond the personal suffering to the affected individuals and their families, the State of Florida simply cannot afford to pay this sum.
Recognizing these challenges, the UF Brain Institute, College of Medicine and other Health Science Center colleges launched a major new campaign to combat Alzheimer's disease. The MBI-UF has taken the lead in this effort so as to take advantage of the synergistic opportunities provided by the extraordinary (best in the world) high technology research infrastructure of the MBI-UF and the rapidly expanding and clinically relevant research on Alzheimer's disease being conducted by the MBI-UF's 300 plus campus-wide faculty membership (the most comprehensive brain research program in the world) and their collaborators throughout the State of Florida and the world. Integral to this goal is the expedited recruitment of a world-class Alzheimer's disease clinical and basic science translational researcher and leader to help organize and catalyze existing and newly recruited faculty research efforts and applications for major new sources of federal, foundation, private, and other sources of research funding. As described below, chief among the latter will be a successful application to the National Institute on Aging for an Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC).
Among the existing resources available for this purpose, we recognize that in August of 2001, SantaFe HealthCare, Inc. donated the first of three $0.5 million gifts to the University of Florida to create an endowment to help form an ADRC within the MBI-UF. As a potential federal multiplier for this gift, its timing was intended to be a catalyst for a statewide effort led by the MBI-UF to form the multidisciplinary faculty research teams, programs, and facilities essential for the creation of a competitive grant application to the National Institute on Aging in 2003. Currently there are 30 of these grant-funded ADRC's scattered across the country, but there has never been one in the State of Florida. With this federal grant, Floridians could be better assured of having access to the very best care and state-of-the-art treatments. But in order to achieve this goal, the new MBI-UF-led statewide initiative must move quickly and decisively to meet the 2003 deadline. Although the MBI-UF and other components of the UF are prepared to do their part in this effort (including the provision of research lab space and access to our multi-million dollar high technology research core facilities(, unfortunately the fact is that achieving success in the recruitment of the world-class Alzheimer's disease faculty researcher to lead the ADRC and in the awarding of the National Institute on Aging grant application will both require the requested recurring infusion of state resources. |
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| Is this a water project as described in Chapter 2002-291, Laws of Florida? |
No |
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| Measurable Outcome Anticipated: |
| Through a competitive acqusition and peer evaluation retention basis, the MBI-UF will use these funds for new faculty member recruitment start-up packages and the "seed" funding of novel diagnostic and treatment strategies (including rehabilitation) to reduce the debastating fiscal and personal consequences of Alzheimer's disease. It should be noted that the MBI-UF already has an enviable record of "multiplying" other sources of seed funds into larger (mostly federal) awards and is therefore anxious to provide an annual documentation to the Legislature of the program's research discoveries, clinical applications, peer-reviewed publications, extramural grant and commercial successes. |
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| Amount requested from the State for this project this year: |
$1,000,000 |
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| Total cost of the project: |
$1,000,000 |
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| Request has been made to fund: |
Operations |
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| What type of match exists for this project? |
None |
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Cash Amount |
$ |
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| Was this project previously funded by the state? |
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Yes |
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Fiscal Year: |
2002-2003 |
Amount: |
$1,000,000 |
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| Is future-year funding likely to be requested? |
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Yes |
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Amount: |
$1,000,000 |
To Fund: |
Operations |
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| Was this project included in an Agency's Budget Request? |
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Unknown |
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| Was this project included in the Governor's Recommended Budget? |
Unknown |
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| Is there a documented need for this project? |
Yes |
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Documentation: |
2002 Alzheimer's Summit |
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| Was this project request heard before a publicly noticed meeting of a body of elected officials (municipal, county, or state)? |
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Yes |
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Hearing Body: |
Alachua County Legislative Delegation |
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Hearing Meeting Date: |
12/18/2002 |
