Press Releases
U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller Announces
Major New Scientific Research Endeavor
December 13, 1999
"Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute"
Partners with West Virginia University and Johns Hopkins University
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — U.S. Senator John D. Rockefeller IV (D WV) today announced the formation of a nonprofit multi-million dollar international medical research center focused on fundamental cognitive neuroscience and the development of new drugs and diagnostics to treat and diagnose neurological and cognitive disorders. The Institute will be named the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute, after Rockefeller’s mother, who after battling Alzheimer’s Disease for nearly a decade, succumbed to the disease in 1992.
The Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute will begin as an $80 million independent research center, and represents a partnership between two of America’s important research universities: West Virginia University and Johns Hopkins University. The Institute will be headquartered on the campus of West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia and research will also be conducted at Johns Hopkins University’s Montgomery County, Maryland campus.
The Institute will be the largest scientific research venture in the history of West Virginia, and the only major institute focusing on human memory in the world. Rockefeller will serve as its founding Chairman.
"The creation of the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute is a deeply personal event in my life and the life of my family," said Rockefeller. "After watching my mother suffer from the agony of Alzheimer’s disease, I am determined to work to spare others from this and other illnesses that afflict the mind. The Institute is committed to attracting the best -- the very best -- researchers in the world to come together and collaborate to find cures and treatments for this and other terrible, degrading diseases."
Senator Rockefeller also announced that the Institute will bring together one of the world’s foremost research teams in human memory and cognition, led by 29-year National Institute of Health (NIH) veteran Dr. Daniel Alkon. Dr. Alkon has earned an international reputation for his scientific achievements in both the study of human memory and the battle against devastating neurological diseases.
Alkon is an internationally recognized authority in memory research. He is currently a Medical Director in the U.S. Public Health Service, National Institute of Neurological Disease and Stroke (NINDS) at the National Institutes of Health where he is Chief of the Laboratory of Adaptive Systems. His laboratory conducts a multidisciplinary research program on the molecular and biophysical bases of memory and memory dysfunction and neurological disorders, particularly Alzheimer’s Disease.
"Leading research at the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute allows me the opportunity to expand on a lifetime of human memory research, and see the results of this research directly benefit suffering patients," Alkon said.
Alkon and his colleagues at the NIH have developed a new model of how Alzheimer’s disease, in its earliest stages, causes molecular changes in the cells of the human brain. By adding to scientific understanding of the action of the disease at this most basic level, they have demonstrated promising new areas for early diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s.
In addition, Alkon has worked with other scientists to incorporate some of the memory-storage principles they derived from biological brain networks into the designs of computer-based networks. These networks have generated patented pattern recognition systems with rapid self-organizing functions that offer a broad range of practical applications.
West Virginia University, one of the nation’s leading research institutions on aging, has made an initial commitment of $10 million to the Institute. An additional $20 million has been identified and will come from private sector alliances. The remainder of the $80 million in funding will include a $3 million West Virginia Economic Development Authority (WVEDA) loan and other funds raised by the Institute in direct research grants, public/private partnerships and donations.
"West Virginia University is proud to join the Rockefeller family, Johns Hopkins University and a team of the world’s most prominent scientists in the search for diagnostics, treatments and ultimately cures for devastating neurological disorders," said West Virginia University President David C. Hardesty, Jr. "The Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute will also serve as a magnet for the development of biotechnology investment throughout West Virginia."
Johns Hopkins University has signed a collaborative partnership agreement with the Rockefeller Institute, which calls for an exchange of researchers, faculty and students. The agreement calls for University-wide participation and cooperation in the Institute’s principal areas of research.
"Johns Hopkins University is honored to join Senator Rockefeller, West Virginia University and the international collaborators in a partnership around the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute," said Gary Ostrander, Johns Hopkins Associate Dean for Research in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. "The Institute will be a key player in continuing Johns Hopkins’ international leadership in scientific research."
The Institute is also currently negotiating a number of collaborations with international partners both in Asia and Europe. It is expected that these partnerships will help attract the best scientific and research minds to the Morgantown and Montgomery County laboratories, creating a world-wide network of research and discovery. Researchers at both the Morgantown institute headquarters and in the Montgomery County, Maryland laboratory will seek to define and apply principles of molecular and cellular neurobiology for the purpose of preventing, diagnosing and treating neurologic, psychiatric and other cognitive disorders affecting the human brain. The researchers will be dedicated to seeking practical solutions to neurologic and cognitive impairment through fundamental neuroscience research.
Principal areas of research will include: neurodegenerative diseases and cognitive disorders in learning and memory; mood disorders such as depression, anxiety and schizophrenia; epilepsy; central nervous system injury; and other areas of fundamental neuroscience. Both fundamental research and drug development will take place in these areas, as well as pre-doctoral and postdoctoral training by both academic institutions.
Blanchette Ferry Hooker Rockefeller lived a long life of vitality and accomplishment. She made vast contributions to community service, arts and education in New York City and beyond. Blanchette Rockefeller was dedicated to the preservation of health and family – serving on the Board of Trustees of the 104-year-old Community Service Society, the largest American private nonsectarian family and health agency.
"Blanchette Rockefeller was the definition of grace and engagement in life," said Dr. Robert D’Alessandri, Vice President for Health Sciences and Dean of the School of Medicine. "Alzheimer’s disease stripped her of these qualities, as it does millions of people around the world every year. Her commitment to life and to family are the reasons why we have chosen to give the Institute her name."
Rockefeller worked with representatives from West Virginia University, Johns Hopkins University, top researchers in neuroscience and private sector leaders for nearly two years in organizing and planning for the launch of the Institute. The Senator is currently recruiting a number of prominent world figures to serve on the Institute's Board. Founding members of the Board include: David C. Hardesty, Jr, President, West Virginia University; Minister George Yang, Minister of State, Republic of China (Taiwan); Dr. Robert D’Alessandri, Vice President for Health Sciences and Dean of the School of Medicine; Peter Kalis, Patner, Kirkpatrick and Lockhart, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; W. Marston Becker; President of the Specialty Insurance Division of Royal and SunAlliance, Farmington, Connecticut; Ralph Bean, Partner, Steptoe and Johnson, Clarksburg, West Virginia; Lane Bailey former Rockefeller Chief of Staff and Senior Vice President, Weber McGinn, Arlington, Virginia. Executive Director of the Institute is Dr. Fred Butcher, also currently head of the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center at West Virginia University.
The Institute’s Chair, Senator Jay Rockefeller is the Senate’s strongest advocate for comprehensive health care reform. Rockefeller served as Chairman of the Pepper Commission (the Bipartisan Commission on Comprehensive Health Care) and the National Commission on Children, whose landmark, unanimous recommendations still challenge our nation to address the broad needs and problems of children. He led efforts that reformed the way physicians are paid under Medicare, expanded Medicaid to cover home and community health care services, rescued health benefits for retired coal miners and their widows, prohibited companies from denying insurance coverage based on pre-existing conditions, set stricter standards for "Medigap" insurance policies, extended health insurance benefits to millions of uninsured American children and to add prescription drug benefits for Medicare beneficiaries. Rockefeller also serves as Ranking Democrat on the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs where he has provided strong leadership for our nation's veterans.
"For more than two decades I have worked to improve the health care available to West Virginians and people across the country," Rockefeller said. "The goals of the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute are not limited to the laboratory. We will strive to move discoveries quickly out of the hands of researchers and into health care facilities around the world. I’m very proud to have the center of this global effort be in my home state of West Virginia, and to have my mother’s memory honored in this way."
The Institute is expected to begin its research operations in early 2000.