San Diego’s fight to end Alzheimer’s disease got a big boost on April 20th, amid signs that the deadly illness and other forms of dementia are taking an escalating toll on the region.

A coalition of brain scientists and civic leaders, including Mayor Kevin Faulconer, Alzheimer’s San Diego President/CEO Eugenia Welch and county Supervisors Dianne Jacob and Kristin Gaspar, announced that the federal government has awarded a $1.3 million grant to Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute to advance the local search for a cure.

The news grew out of the work of The Alzheimer’s Project, a county-led initiative that has gained national recognition, and its spinoff, Collaboration4Cure. C4C has brought together the region’s top research institutions with Alzheimer’s San Diego to expand the drive to find a treatment or cure.

“Alzheimer’s disease personally affects tens of thousands of residents, families and caregivers in San Diego every day, which is why this grant is so significant,” San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer said. “This funding is critical to advancing research and providing programs that will support people as they overcome this debilitating disease. It is going to help turn San Diego’s culture of scientific collaboration into a cure.”

The funding comes as the county released two studies showing the widening impact of dementia on San Diego families, hospitals and health care economy.

By 2030, the number of local residents 55 and older with dementia is expected to increase 36 percent – from more than 84,000 today to 115,000, according to one of the studies.

“We see the devastation caused by Alzheimer’s every single day – from the person who was recently diagnosed and doesn’t know where to turn, to exhausted family caregivers in need of guidance and everyone in between,” said Eugenia Welch, President & CEO of Alzheimer’s San Diego. “Alzheimer’s San Diego will be here working tirelessly for local families impacted by dementia until the day a cure is found. Thanks to C4C, we’re closer to that day than ever before.”

Sanford Burnham Prebys (SBP) announced that a team of scientists has been awarded a three-year National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to identify prototype drugs with the long-term goal of developing a disease-modifying treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.

The $1.3 million grant stems from a collaborative effort between Drs. Huaxi Xu, Michael Jackson and Eduard Sergienko, who have been working for the past two years on research funded by C4C and a grant from Stuart and Karen Tanz. The studies focus on a gene called TREM2, mutations of which are known to correlate with a significantly increased risk of developing late-onset Alzheimer’s.

With this NIH grant, the SBP team plans to identify prototype drugs that can bind to and modulate the activity of TREM2. The identified chemical compounds will be tested in cellular systems, to provide insight into the biology of TREM2 and its role in late-onset Alzheimer’s and to advance the long-term goal of developing a disease-modifying treatment.

Participating with Sanford Burnham Prebys in C4C are The Salk Institute, The Scripps Research Institute, J. Craig Venter Institute and the University of California, San Diego.

In 2015, San Diego philanthropist Darlene Shiley provided the seed money to start the research incubator and remains its lead donor. Those wishing to contribute can go to alzsd.org/c4c.