Texas A&M Launches TARCC Grant Program for Alzheimer’s Research

The Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine recently launched a new initiative against Alzheimer’s Disease that aims to encourage the use of the Texas Alzheimer’s Research and Care Consortium’s (TARCC) large patient cohort. The TARCC Investigator Grant Program will be awarding a total of five inaugural grants worth $50,000 each, and two grants worth $125,000 over a period of 2 years. Encouraged to vie for one of the generous grants are emerging scientists with novel and promising ideas, whose work will boost awareness and full utilization of the TARCC’s comprehensive patient data and resources to help find solutions for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative conditions.

The Alzheimer’s Association estimates the disease to affect at least 5.2 million Americans and kill over 500,000 each year. The state of Texas places 3rd in the U.S. for the most number of people who are diagnosed with and who have died of Alzheimer’s disease. These alarming numbers prompted the founding of the TARCC, which is now comprised of 6 medical research institutions, including TAMHSC.

“Although open to all researchers within the state, the program will target junior-level investigators to provide up-and-coming researchers with financial support to advance studies that utilize this unparalleled resource and spur multi-institutional, collaborative research throughout Texas,” said Farida Sohrabji, Ph.D., professor and associate department chair at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine. She is also a member of the TARCC’s Steering Committee and will be overseeing the new grant program.

Stephen Waring, DVM, Ph.D., a research scientist with the Essentia Institute of Rural Health and a member of the TARCC External Advisory Committee, adds the addition of TAMHSC to the consortium has only strengthened its capabilities in Alzheimer’s research. Through Dr. Sohrabhi’s leadership on the new grant program, the TARCC will soon experience an influx of new ideas from promising researchers.

The TARCC Investigator Grant Program will be elevating the Texas Harris Alzheimer’s Study that works to monitor a diverse cohort of patients with Alzheimer’s Disease and mild cognitive impairment, along with subjects who are healthy and willing to participate as part of a control group. The TARCC’s resources enables ease in collaborative research programs among affiliated institutions, and has proven to be a regular source of groundbreaking clinical updates. The Harris Alzheimer’s Study is one of a kind in that it has the most amount of patient information on Mexican-Americans, which is considered the state’s fastest growing minority population.

To know more about the new TARCC grant program and to stay updated on new research opportunities and deadlines, visit http://www.txalzresearch.org/.