Welcome to the International Forum on Memory and Memory Disorders Homepage
Dear Friends,
In 1999, my family and I established the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute (BRNI) on the
campus of West Virginia University in Morgantown,
West Virginia. The Institute is the only non-profit, independent Institute in the world exclusively dedicated to the study of human memory and memory disorders. I am honored that the Institute was named for my mother who was afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease.
The mission of BRNI is to expand and advance the scientific research of memory and memory disorders for purposes of prevention, diagnosis and treatment. The Institute strives to move basic research out of the laboratory and into the hands of physicians and patients.
Through molecular research on memory and other cognitive functions, BRNI pursues a strategy to treat many of the brain diseases that afflict our increasingly aging population. Drugs from BRNI offer the promise of rescuing the brain by restoring and enhancing its capacity to survive and to vastly enhance the formation of new synaptic connections – a "rewiring" that has until now only been considered possible in the younger, developmental stages of life.
On October 16th we hosted the first-ever International Forum on Memory and Memory Disorders, where the work of nine celebrated scientists, whose research has led to breakthrough advances for the aging brain, Alzheimer’s disease, and patients suffering from memory and memory loss disorders, convened to discuss the state of their research.
We thank all those who attended this historic event.
Sincerely,
Senator Jay Rockefeller