AHA, Paul Allen commit $43 million to improving brain health
By American Heart Association News
The Paul G. 艾伦前沿集团和美国心脏协会/美国中风协会正在领导一项4300万美元的研究计划，以寻找改善大脑健康和认知障碍科学的最佳研究理念.
The AHA-Allen initiative in brain health and cognitive impairment, announced Thursday, will seek creative, transformative concepts. The best idea will be funded for eight years; if several ideas merit pursuit, multiple projects will share the resources.
The deadline for researcher proposals is July 6. 紧迫的线上电子游戏飞禽走兽框架既强调了这种需求的紧迫性，也强调了发起一个新颖想法的目标，这个想法可能因为其独特性而被搁置了.
Healthy aging is a major issue. Thanks to advances in science and medicine, people are living for more years, but further work is needed to ensure that those are good years. Cognitive issues interrupt quality of life far too often.
More than 5.目前有700万美国人被诊断患有一种最常见的痴呆症. That number is expected to nearly triple by 2050.
By 2040, 各种形式的痴呆症预计将给医疗保健系统造成至少5000亿美元的拖累, and that’s not counting the personal, emotional toll.
前沿组织和美国心脏协会为寻找答案提供了强大的基础.
The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, a division of the Allen Institute, was founded by philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
The AHA has invested more than $4.1 billion into researching cardiovascular diseases, 使其成为全国最大的心脏病和中风研究的非营利性基金.
“Alzheimer’s, 痴呆症和其他认知疾病已经成为我们社会巨大的情感和经济负担,” said Tom Skalak, executive director of The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, in a news release. “这项新的美国心脏协会-艾伦倡议将在研究人员和医生之间建立新的桥梁和合作, 最终导致更好地理解和治疗这些认知障碍.”
关注这些问题的研究界已经演变成两派, 其中一些专注于神经退行性疾病(如阿尔茨海默氏症)，另一些专注于脑血管疾病(如中风)。. This initiative seeks to be a bridge linking both communities.
The framework of the new initiative is similar to One Brave Idea, 这是美国心脏协会于2016年启动的一项耗资7500万美元的研究项目，旨在对心脏病进行重大研究.
That project began with AHA CEO Nancy Brown and Andy Conrad, CEO of Verily (formerly Google Life Sciences), 谈到需要做一些与传统的研究资助方法截然不同的事情——将资金分配给可能产生增量收益的多个项目.
“一个勇敢的想法”和这个认知障碍倡议都植根于同样的理念:寻找解决老问题的新方法.
“通过创新研究将血管科学和脑科学联系起来，将有助于科学家们对认知障碍和痴呆症的原因或因素有新的认识。,” Brown said in a news release. “美国心脏协会-艾伦关于大脑健康和认知障碍的倡议是朝着更好地了解我们的大脑如何衰老迈出的重要一步，也是该协会持续致力于了解血管健康如何影响大脑健康和整体福祉的一部分。.”
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