Marv Welstead knows personally the suffering Alzheimer’s can cause. He lost his wife, Jean, nearly five years ago after an eight-year struggle with the disease.
He is a member of the Fremont Area Alzheimer’s Committee, which recently gave a $25,000 gift to benefit UNMC. Funds are earmarked to strengthen efforts to successfully recruit participants for national clinical trials that focus on new drug treatments to prevent the development of Alzheimer’s disease or slow its progression.
The gift, through the University of Nebraska Foundation, also supports UNMC’s development of a registry of patients with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias as well as healthy aging individuals who are interested in research.
UNMC is in the beginning stages of launching three new Alzheimer’s disease clinical trials in Nebraska, joining sites from across the United States to complete these clinical trials.
Daniel Murman, M.D., to lead trials
Daniel Murman, M.D., will lead the three clinical trials at UNMC and start the registry. He is a professor in the UNMC Department of Neurological Sciences and director of the Memory Disorders & Behavioral Neurology Program.
He said, “The Fremont Area Alzheimer group’s support is critical to helping UNMC get these clinical trials off the ground and will facilitate future Alzheimer’s disease research focused on finding effective disease modifying therapies.
“While the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and pharmaceutical companies are providing support for the national studies and for participants once they are involved, private funding, such as this gift, benefits us by funding start-up and recruitment activities. This enhances UNMC’s ability to build and maintain the infrastructure needed for Alzheimer’s disease research now and in the future.”
“The right direction”
Welstead said committee members felt these studies were “headed in the right direction.”
“With the clinical trials and the medicines involved, we see great promise in the possibility of delaying the progress of Alzheimer’s in an individual, if caught early enough,” he said. “My hope is that someday an Alzheimer’s patient will take medications to manage the disease just as a heart patient does today.”
Welstead said he has tremendous confidence in Dr. Murman and his colleague Matthew Rizzo, M.D., the Frances and Edgar Reynolds Professor and Chair of the UNMC Department of Neurological Sciences.
“Through their efforts and by leveraging the support of the NIH and pharmaceutical companies through these studies, we think the unbelievable may be attained,” he said. “I’m so pleased our group in Fremont can help.”
Congratulations Dan. Great to see a name I recognize from the Hastings past. Polly Feis. (Mother of Mary)!