THE JEFFREY L. MORBY PRIZE

The Jeffrey L. Morby Prize is named in honor of our late Co-Founder who inspired the mission of Cure Alzheimer’s Fund to end Alzheimer’s disease. He was a passionate advocate for research as the only path to a cure and dedicated to supporting investigators in their scientific pursuits.

Purpose: The Morby Prize will be awarded annually for a recent publication that transforms our fundamental understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and opens new paths to translate scientific results into effective ways to prevent, diagnose or treat Alzheimer’s disease.

Who is eligible: Corresponding and last (‘senior’) authors of a research article published within the past two years (1/1/22 to 12/31/23) that acknowledges the support of a CureAlz grant awarded to the corresponding or senior author. Papers in peer-reviewed journals with epub or advanced online publication dates within the timeframe above are eligible. Preprints will not be accepted. First authors are also eligible if they were employed by the corresponding or senior author with the referenced CureAlz grant. Authors denoted as having equal contributions in any one of these roles: first, last, corresponding, are eligible to share the award if they meet the above requirements.

Two-Stage Selection Process:
(1) All investigators with CureAlz funding in the past two years are invited to nominate three papers published between 1/1/22 to 12/31/23. Self-nominations are permitted but must be limited to only one of the three papers. Self-nomination includes any paper on which the nominator is a first, corresponding, or last author. Each person should also include a brief justification for their selections. The identities of the nominators will be kept confidential. Nominees will be tallied by CureAlz staff and the eligible papers and authors will be short-listed.

(2) The short list will be shared back with CureAlz-funded investigators who can vote for the papers that they think best represent the purpose of the award. Votes will again be tallied by CureAlz and the final awardee(s) will be approved by the Board of Directors.

Award: The award will be presented to the eligible authors of the winning paper at the annual in-person meeting of the CureAlz Research Leadership Group. Awards will include $175,000 to the senior author(s) lab for Alzheimer’s disease-related research purposes, $10,000 as a personal gift to eligible first authors, $10,000 as a personal gift to eligible senior authors, and $2,000 for a lab celebration. These amounts will be shared in the case of authors with equal contributions. The senior author will provide a financial report at the end of one year and deliver a ‘keynote’ lecture on what they were able to do with the research funds at the next annual CureAlz RLG meeting.

Important Dates:
Thursday, February 29 Stage 1: Solicit paper nominations from CureAlz investigators.
Thursday, March 14 Deadline for nominations
Thursday, March 21 Stage 2: Share a short list with investigators for voting.
Thursday, April 4 Deadline for short-list voting
Monday, May 13 Award presented at 2024 in-person RLG meeting.