Bill Gates Pledges $100 Million To Find an Alzheimer's Cure, His First Commitment To a Non-communicable Disease (reuters.com)

At present, there is no treatment to stop the Alzheimer's. Bill Gates wants to make a sizeable attempt to change that. From a report:He is to invest $50 million in the Dementia Discovery Fund, a venture capital fund that brings together industry and government to seek treatments for the brain-wasting disease. The investment -- a personal one and not part of Gates' philanthropic Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation -- will be followed by another $50 million in start-up ventures working in Alzheimer's research, Gates said. "It's a huge problem, a growing problem, and the scale of the tragedy -- even for the people who stay alive -- is very high," he said. Despite decades of scientific research, there is no treatment that can slow the progression of Alzheimer's. Current drugs can do no more than ease some of the symptoms.

Comments

Re: what a loser

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you know how much stress is involved in a young person seeing their parents go through Alzheimer's? If so then this would directly affect the well-being of the young.

For young and old [Re:what a loser]

[Geoffrey.landis]

I assume you're being deliberately provocative, which is to say, you seem to be trolling for an intemperate response.

OK. You're wrong.

First: "Young people need a better future." Yes, and here's what's in the future of young people: they're going to become old people. Young people damn well do want an end to Alzheimers, because without one, it's in their future.

Second, caring for elder people who have Alzheimers is a huge drain on the younger people who have to do the caring, and it's a drain emotionally, physically, and financially. You really do not want to put your parents into an Alzheimer-care assisted living facility and watch them slowly deteriorate on the long road to dying. Trust me.

And third, it's not a dichotomy. Working on stopping one disease doesn't mean that you can't also work on making the world better in other ways as well; and understanding of biology learned from working on Alzheimers may very well have benefits to other diseases and brain injuries, some of which may very well also strike young people.

So, summary: no. Learning to stop Alzheimers would be a good thing for all of us, including old and young people.