National plan for Alzheimer's disease aims to jump-start drug development: Federal funding levels remain uncertain

摘要

Karen Duff, PhD, a key clinical staffer at the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease Research at Columbia University Medical Center, is frustrated. National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for Alzheimer's disease (AD) research has hit the skids. She said, "The last few years have been exceedingly bad for Alzheimer's disease research funding. I have never before seen my research colleagues have to leave their positions, or leave science altogether, because they have not been able to secure NIH funding. The usual casualties are the more junior faculty. But I have seen it happen to senior faculty also, here at Columbia, one of the powerhouses of Alzheimer's disease research."