Cleveland Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center to be established following multi-million dollar grant

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - The National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health provided a $4.23 million grant to create the Cleveland Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, the Cleveland Clinic announced on Tuesday.

This virtual research center will be up and running within a few weeks, according to a Cleveland Clinic spokesperson.

Researchers and clinicians from the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, and other research and medical centers will come together to study Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

The Cleveland Alzheimer's Disease Research Center will be the first NIH-funded Alzheimer's research center in Ohio. It will join the 30 other NIH-funded Alzheimer's Disease Research Centers of Excellence in the U.S.

The research program’s goal?

Improving the diagnosis and care of people with dementia, and eventually, identifying a cure.

About 220,000 Ohioans age 65 or older are estimated to have Alzheimer's, and that number is expected to increase to approximately 250,000 Ohioans by 2025, according to The Alzheimer's Association.

For scale comparison, Akron's population is about 200,000 people.

Approximately 5.8 million people in the U.S. have Alzheimer's, and that number is projected to increase to 14 million people by 2050.

Symptoms of dementia include impaired memory, communication, visual perception and ability to focus.

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