Northwestern Medicine recently received a $25 million gift to establish a new center aimed at Alzheimer’s disease research.
The center at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, called The Abrams Research Center on Neurogenomics, is set to be led by NU assistant professor David Gate. The center is slated to use tech including artificial intelligence (AI) and genomics and collaborate with other higher-education institutions.
“This gift has the potential to be transformational in the way we care for and treat patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease,” said Howard B. Chrisman, MD, president and chief executive officer, Northwestern Memorial HealthCare. “This act of kindness and generosity by Wendy and Jim Abrams and the Eleven Eleven Foundation will have a global reach on patients, caregivers and those impacted by this deadly disease.”
The center will create an array of AI tools and analysis methods that are designed to help neuroscientists study the genes and cell types impacted by Alzheimer’s disease and eventually find new therapies for people living with it.
Researchers hope to identify “key pieces” that lead to further discoveries related to Alzhiemer’s disease, and work to analyze data sets that are “currently incomprehensible,” the university said in its announcement.
By analyzing this health data, researchers at the center will look to make information more readily available for other scientists and improve collaboration in the study of Alzheimer’s disease.
