Our Mission

The Geoffrey Beene Foundation Alzheimer's Initiative was launched in 2007 as a major charitable beneficiary of the Geoffrey Beene Foundation - to fight Alzheimer's - a fatal, degenerative, neurological disease that has no cure. The Initiative is a philanthropic, not for-profit 501(c)(3), committed to providing catalyst funding to innovative new projects that advance awareness, diagnosis and research in early stages of Alzheimer's disease.

The Geoffrey Beene Foundation Alzheimer's Initiative is underwritten by the Geoffrey Beene Foundation. Contributions in excess of $4.8 million have been made to support groundbreaking awareness programs and next generation research in early diagnostics. "Not unlike cancer, the Geoffrey Beene Foundation's lead philanthropic cause, most researchers agree that the greatest potential to stop Alzheimer's lies in the earliest stages of the disease, which is why we fund translational research. Innovative Challenges help to support that mission," said Tom Hutton, the Trustee and Chief Executive Officer of the Geoffrey Beene Foundation and President and Chief Executive Officer of Geoffrey Beene, LLC. "We must redefine the solutions process and free the greatest minds of our time to do the work and to help save and improve lives."

The Geoffrey Beene Foundation Alzheimer's Initiative's mission is engaging a new generation of innovation. Even though experts now widely agree that early stages of Alzheimer's hold the key to treatment and prevention, individuals with early Alzheimer's have always been difficult to identify and costly to study in traditional clinical trial-based research. As a result, the scientific community has only begun to understand initial, pre-symptomatic disease progression and potential therapeutic options. The Geoffrey Beene Foundation Alzheimer's Initiative focuses on this relatively new field of research.

We promote "big data" analysis and mainstream digital tech applications like mobile brain behavior monitoring and social media-based population databases that can focus and support the growing millions of Americans who are worried about their brain health. The Geoffrey Beene Foundation Alzheimer's Initiative reaches across disciplines and industries through awards-based, open source challenges that engage new leaders with new ideas about our nation's aging population and how to accelerate the development of Alzheimer's therapies.

In 2012, our first collaborative open source competition (Alzheimer's Challenge 2012) recognized four new initiatives in self-administered mobile applications for brain health. We continue this approach to open-sourcing innovation through the 2013 Geoffrey Beene NeuroDiscovery Challenge - the first of its kind challenge to identify male/female differences in Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and the impact in neurodegenerative progression leading to Alzheimer's disease. Understanding gender-based differences in early stages of cognitive decline may help find ways to prevent and treat this incurable disease in women and men alike.

As a Co-Founder of the 21st Century BrainTrust™, the Geoffrey Beene Foundation Alzheimer's Initiative promotes validation studies of mobile digital devices that measure brain behavior. These initiatives will directly benefit early Alzheimer's research, but will also refine systems for use in a wide variety of cognitive conditions.

The Geoffrey Beene Foundation Alzheimer's Initiative also collaborates with inventor/entrepreneurs and researchers on real-world systems and tools that accelerate the study of Alzheimer's and engage the public as Citizen Scientists (CogState ClinicalTrials software, BrainBaseline™, and the Alzheimer's Prevention Registry).

The Geoffrey Beene Foundation Alzheimer's Initiative believes that new advances in early Alzheimer's research will require nothing short of widespread public involvement and education through high profile public service campaigns. The award-winning Geoffrey Beene's Rock Stars of Science™ (owned and produced by the Geoffrey Beene Foundation) puts rock stars alongside the country's top medical researchers to inspire a new generation of scientists. Other awareness initiatives like the pioneering HBO documentary series, "The Alzheimer's Project," work to alert mainstream America to the coming Alzheimer's epidemic.

2013 GEOFFREY BEENE GLOBAL NEURODISCOVERY CHALLENGE

CrowdSourcing A Cure Through Prize-Based Awards

CLICK HERE to enter

WHY ARE WOMEN MORE AT RISK THAN MEN FOR ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE?

MEET THE CHALLENGE. $100,000 IN PRIZES.

Submission Deadline: August 31, 2013

The 2013 Geoffrey Beene Global NeuroDiscovery Challenge focuses on the need to better understand gender-based differences in Alzheimer's disease progression and its impact on early cognitive decline. In heart disease, men and women present differently for both diagnosis and treatment. Is the same true for Alzheimer's disease?

Do women get Alzheimer's more than men, even after correcting for longer lifespan? In what ways does the disease appear to affect them differently? While some initial studies have begun to explore gender differences in Alzheimer's, rigorous and critical investigation is needed to set the direction for future research on key aspects of Alzheimer's, including:

• Disease progression
• Biologic biomarkers such as beta amyloid and tau proteins
• The effectiveness of brain imaging technologies in diagnosis
• Genetic risk factors
• Bioenergetic systems
• Penetration of the blood brain barrier for transport of medicines
• Performance on cognitive and functional tests

The 2013 Geoffrey Beene Global NeuroDiscovery Challenge is the second in a series of open-source competitions engaging multi-disciplinary teams to develop NEW THINKING - new theoretical hypotheses, novel wireless technologies and cost-effective applications, to help accelerate earlier Alzheimer's diagnosis and recruit asymptomatic populations for prevention trials.

More technology driven and clinically validated tools to identify high-risk, presymptomatic patients and evaluate their progression have been lacking, slowing critical clinical trials and drug development. The Geoffrey Beene Global Grand Challenge series seeks to stimulate solutions to this impasse.

Each phase of the Challenge series will focus on a different obstacle to research breakthroughs. All phases are driven by three core imperatives:

• Improve early diagnosis and monitoring of patients with Alzheimer's
• Expand data collection and sharing beyond traditional clinical trial laboratory settings
• Make cognitive baseline testing and tracking a routine part of every American's basic health assessment

Based on these criteria, winners will be awarded a development prize to actualize their proposal for mainstream use.

Alzheimer’s Prevention Registry

The Geoffrey Beene Foundation Alzheimer's Initiative provides catalyst funding for the Alzheimer's Prevention Registry, which was developed in collaboration with the Banner Alzheimer's Institute- the first online, Alzheimer's disease national Prevention Registry created specifically to recruit pre-symptomatic subjects for treatments or interventions that will postpone, slow or prevent the disease's progress.

The Registry provides people who want to see an end to this disease a simple and meaningful way to help. It is the first online, Alzheimer's disease national prevention registry created specifically to recruit:

• Pre-symptomatic, high-risk adults
• Self-trackers
• Early adopters of brain health baseline markers

CLICK TO OPT-IN & SHARE!

By joining the Registry, members commit to helping end Alzheimer's without losing another generation. They step forward to protect their own health or that of loved ones and friends. In turn, the Registry allows them to be part of an online community that provides them with regular updates on the latest scientific advances and news, information on overall brain health and potential opportunities to participate in prevention studies.

Signing up is quick and easy, so do it today. Just visit www.endALZnow.org/Registry.

The Registry will provide participating researchers with unprecedented access to the largest pool of patient data in Alzheimer's disease research, with enrollment goals of 250,000 by the third year of operation.

A number of major research organizations are already committed to using the Registry, including those planned by the Alzheimer's Prevention Initiative and the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study.

21st Century BrainTrust™ - BECOME PART OF THE SOLUTION

The Geoffrey Beene Foundation Alzheimer's Initiative led the formation of the 21st Century BrainTrust™ in 2012. The 21st Century BrainTrust™ is a coalition of four non-profits developing a virtual research ecosystem to empower personal brain health and support early diagnosis through self-administered mobile applications for personal measurement and monitoring of cognition. The 21st Century BrainTrust™ promotes cutting-edge technologies that offer low-cost screening capabilities for future prevention trials, facilitating enrollment, or potentially serving exploratory trial endpoints. Think new digital biomarkers mapped using the power of self-administered cognitive testing as a sensitive, early screening tool for all brain traumas, Alzheimer's and related dementias.

The 21st Century BrainTrust™ offers proactive options for America's "worried well" - everyone concerned about brain trauma from contact sports and accidents, documented to accelerate dementia, to asymptomatic adults (age 40+) - who understand the personal and societal threats of Alzheimer's disease, but are stymied by stigma, denial and ageism.

The 21st Century BrainTrust™ was named the winner of a $100,000 developmental award as part of the Sanofi US Partners in Patient Health Collaborate | Activate Innovation Challenge. The team was selected for the prize from among nearly 300 proposals submitted to the Challenge.

Other co-founders of the 21st Century BrainTrust™ are USAgainstAlzheimers, BrightFocus Foundation (formerly AHAF), and The Cleveland Clinic/Lou Ruvo Brain Institute. Endorsements include One Mind For Research, Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Fund, CEOI, AGEWAVE, Alzheimer's Foundation of America, Coalition Against Major Diseases (CAMD) and Society For Women's Health Research.

FUTURE-FORWARD

The Geoffrey Beene Foundation Alzheimer's Initiative is collaborating on real-world, forward-looking initiatives including:

The CogState ClinicalTrial

CogState Research is an academically oriented version of the CogState ClinicalTrials software.

With the same proven rapidity, sensitivity and validity, this software provides academic researchers with a powerful method of testing cognition at a competitive price. It has been used by institutions such as Yale University, the University of Melbourne and the Australian Government's National Health & Medical Research Council.

CogState tests use simple but effective technology to detect cognitive change in subjects. The tests begin by taking a baseline measurement from a subject who is then periodically retested in order to detect cognitive change. CogState testing utilizes culture-neutral stimuli, which ensures that a wide range of subjects can be tested regardless of their ethnicity, socio-economic background or education. CogState tests are extremely sensitive and their validity has been demonstrated in over 100 peer-reviewed articles.

BrainBaseline™

Your Brain Health is just an app away!

• Download It
• Blue Button It
• And Opt in for Research

BrainBaseline™, a top finalist in the Alzheimer's Challenge 2012, co-sponsored by The Geoffrey Beene Alzheimer's Initiative, harnesses the revolutionary technology of the iPad to help you track your brain's performance. BrainBaseline™ is the first iPad application to measure how well your brain works. BrainBaseline™ crosses the ease of use and the multi-touch technology of the iPad with a series of interactive and engaging game-based, clinically-modeled assessments.

Past Challenge Winner: Ginger.io

The Alzheimer's Challenge 2012 is the first in a series of open-source innovation challenges to be launched in partnership or solely by the Geoffrey Beene Foundation Alzheimer's Initiative under the Geoffrey Beene Global Grand Challenge name. The Geoffrey Beene Foundation Alzheimer's Initiative in its first Geoffrey Beene Global Grand Challenge in partnership with Janssen Alzheimer's Immunotherapy and Pfizer Inc., awarded a $175,000 development prize to Team Ginger.io for a proposed, integrated web-based data collection and analysis platform for researchers and healthcare providers, that interfaces with a mobile phone app, for patients to collect behavior data and identify novel findings.

The Ginger.io platform and app are currently being developed for clinical trial validation in collaboration with the 21st Century BrainTrust™, a new alliance co-founded by the Geoffrey Beene Foundation Alzheimer's Initiative, committed to developing better research systems, and mobilizing America's worried well to take part in research to prevent Alzheimer's and other serious brain diseases.

Ginger.io will be:

• Easy to use: simple set-up allows for secure data collection, clean data transfer and fast analysis
• Better data quality: continuously collect real-time, passive (mobile sensor) and active (patient-reported outcomes) data
• Discover patterns: uncover new findings with the ease of Google Analytics, enabling better quality care for patients

PIONEERING MEDIA

Watch HBO's "The Alzheimer's Project"

Check out Geoffrey Beene Foundation's Rock Stars of Science™