WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Susan Collins, the Chairman of the Senate Aging Committee, and Angus King announced today that The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor has been awarded a grant totaling $2,668,127 over five years that will fund studies of the complex processes involved in both healthy aging and Alzheimer’s disease

“Approximately 5.4 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease today, including 37,000 in Maine, and that number is soaring as our overall population grows older and lives longer,” said Senator Collins. “As the founder and co-chair of Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer’s, I have worked to significantly increase federal investments in biomedical research to support the exciting developments underway to solve the mystery of Alzheimer’s. The skilled scientists at Jackson Lab are global leaders in biomedical research, and this grant will bring them one step closer to identifying a means of prevention, treatment, or cure for this devastating disease.”

“Every year, Alzheimer’s disease tragically impacts thousands of people across Maine and millions more across America – and fighting back is often a heartbreaking challenge, both for those who struggle with it and those caring for them,” Senator King said. “And those challenges highlight the importance of advancing research conducted at groundbreaking facilities like Jackson Lab. With these federal funds, the researchers and scientists at Jackson Laboratory will be able to better understand Alzheimer’s disease and, hopefully, develop effective strategies that will one day help us find a cure so that no person or family will have to confront this terrible disease again.”

The Jackson Laboratory is an independent, nonprofit biomedical research institution based in Bar Harbor, Maine, with a National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center, a facility in Sacramento, Calif., and a genomic medicine institute in Farmington, Conn. It employs 1,900 staff, and its mission is to discover precise genomic solutions for disease and empower the global biomedical community in the shared quest to improve human health.

Click HERE for additional information about the grant.

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