A $6 million dollar gift to Penn, creating the Marion S. Ware Alzheimer Program, will fund drug discovery, clinical research, and patient care related to this progressive, degenerative disease of the brain.
The program builds upon the work of the Alzheimer’s Disease Center, the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, and collaborating faculty and centers within the medical and nursing schools at Penn.
Donor Marion Ware is a longtime Penn supporter and chair emerita of the Oxford Foundation. In 1999 she created the John H. Ware 3rd Professorship in Alzheimer’s Research at Penn (named after her late husband, a congressman and Penn trustee).
Dr. Arthur H. Rubenstein, executive vice president of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and dean of the School of Medicine, praised Ware’s latest gift, noting that, “With our aged population projected to expand dramatically in the coming years, and with Alzheimer’s disease research showing great potential, now is the time to focus increased resources and energies on uncovering the mysteries of this devastating disease and offering new hope to its patients and their loved ones.”
The program will focus on three goals: Identifying new drugs to prevent or ameliorate the onset or progression of Alzheimer’s; developing tests to detect the disease and measure changes in its progression; and developing a “comprehensive, coordinated, and cost-effective” model of patient-care management.
