Weiner Accepts Reagan Award on Behalf of Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative

Michael Weiner

Michael W. Weiner, MD, director of the UCSF-affiliated San Francisco Veteran's Affairs Medical Center's Center for Imaging of Neurodegenerative Diseases and principal investigator of the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), accepted the 2011 Ronald and Nancy Reagan Research Award from the Alzheimer’s Association on April 6.

The association presented the award to ADNI “for its collaborative and innovative approaches to furthering Alzheimer treatment, prevention and care,” citing Weiner for his “extraordinary leadership [which] has helped make ADNI the largest public-private Alzheimer’s disease research partnership in our country.”

ADNI is a $140,000,000 multi-year clinical trial involving more than 1,000 patients at 55 centers in the United States and Canada. Its mission is to establish biomarkers for the progression of Alzheimer’s disease based on markers in the brain, spinal fluid and blood. Much of the project’s funding is administered by NCIRE-The Veterans Health Research Institute.

“I am incredibly moved by this,” said Weiner, who is also a professor of radiology, medicine, psychiatry, and neurology at UCSF. “Of course, none of this would be possible without the huge support that our research group and I have received during the past decades from the leadership of the VA, NCIRE, and UCSF.”

“This award is wonderful recognition of the great contribution to Alzheimer's disease neuroimaging research made by Dr. Weiner and his group,” said Judy Yee, MD, professor and vice chair of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging at UCSF and chief of Radiology at San Francisco Veteran's Affairs Medical Center (SFVAMC.) “We are very proud of Dr. Weiner's achievements and look forward to his continued research success in this very important field. The dedication and hard work of the excellent investigators of ADNI are also to be commended.”

The award, which was presented by Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell at the National Alzheimer’s Gala in Washington, DC, pays tribute to the former President and Nancy Reagan for their courage and leadership in the fight against Alzheimer’s, and honors researchers who are leading the way in promising and innovative approaches to Alzheimer’s treatment, prevention, and care.

NCIRE-The Veterans Health Research Institute is a self-funded private nonprofit research institute, established to administer health research at SFVAMC. It is the largest research institute associated with a VA medical center in the United States. NCIRE’s mission is to advance Veterans health through research.