Cure Alzheimer's Fund: Targeting Breakthrough Research

Katherine Hobson features Cure Alzheimer's co-founder, Henry McCance and his TEDMED talk in the Wall Street Journal HealthBlog. She writes:

Henry McCance, chairman emeritus of venture-capital firm Greylock Partners, says the conventional way of funding academic research is ineffective. And he’s got an alternative strategy, based on how things work in the VC world. . .

McCance said, for every dollar spent on Alzheimer’s research, another $400 is spent on caregiving to those who suffer from the disease.

Researchers spend up to 30% of their time filling out grant applications, he said. The entire system encourages incremental research on already-established theories that moves the ball forward, at most, only a yard or two. With the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund, where McCance is a founding board member, there’s a different approach. Namely:

• Proactively identify world-class researchers and fund them.
• Relieve them from bureaucracy.
• Network researchers in a virtual organization and insist they share data and results promptly and collaboratively.
• Challenge your researchers to dare to be great.

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