USF Alzheimer's center gives $1.8-million in grants
The institute lacks its own building on campus, but it does have some funds to further research.
By LISA GREENE
Published January 16, 2004
TAMPA - Construction won't start until fall for the fledgling Florida Alzheimer's Center & Research Institute. So what the institute did Wednesday might seem a little unexpected.
It gave away money.
Officials for the institute, to be located at the University of South Florida, distributed $1.8-million in grants to researchers from around Florida at a news conference on the site of the future center.
Since the center hasn't opened yet, "we might as well give some money for our colleagues around the state," said Huntington Potter, the new interim CEO of the center. "We're investing in the future of these researchers."
Potter, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at USF since 1998, has done extensive research on Alzheimer's disease.
The center plans to continue to work with other researchers once it is up and running, Potter said. Among his plans: to apply to the National Institute of Aging for a designation as an Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. There is a handful of such centers around the country, but none in Florida.
"The more researchers we have on getting a cure, the more help we're going to have in getting it fast," Potter said.
With more than 430,000 Alzheimer's patients and an elderly population, Florida is the ideal setting for such a center, he said.
The designation is similar to the Comprehensive Cancer Center label carried by H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, also at USF. It would help the Alzheimer's center win grant money in the future, Potter said.
The plan also shows the scope of the ambitions for the new center, a project pushed by Florida House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, whose father died of the disease.
Byrd planned to be present Wednesday but canceled. He and USF president Judy Genshaft clashed over the center last year, when she minimized the need for state funding. But Genshaft, who is on the center's new board, was enthusiastic about the center's plans Wednesday.
The center is "poised to develop into a national leader on Alzheimer's research and treatment," she said.
Genshaft announced Wednesday that USF will lease the 2.6-acre site, on the campus just south of Fletcher Avenue, to the center for $1 a year.
State legislators have appropriated $20-million to build the center. The grant money given out Wednesday comes from state money for operating expenses, not building funds, Potter said.
The 16 grants range from $89,600 to $153,600 and went to researchers at several locations, including USF, the University of Florida, Florida State University and the University of Miami. The topics range from identifying genes that prevent Alzheimer's to finding better ways to help Alzheimer's caregivers in rural areas.
"It's unusual in a sense," Rob Glueckauf, an FSU grant recipient, said of the center's decision. "But this is a way to attract investigators across the state to work together on a common good ... they're trying to build community among researchers across the state."
