The Peter & Jeri Dejana Foundation has provided a $5 million gift to Northwell Health’s Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research to advance research aimed at understanding and treating Alzheimer’s disease and related neurodegenerative disorders.
The philanthropic investment will support research led by Luca Giliberto and Cristina d’Abramo, investigators in the Institute of Molecular Medicine at the Feinstein Institutes. The funding establishes the Peter & Jeri Dejana Foundation Fund for Neurodegenerative Diseases at Northwell Health.
Alzheimer’s disease and related conditions affect millions of people worldwide and remain among the most complex disorders to diagnose and treat, highlighting the need for new scientific approaches. Researchers at the Feinstein Institutes are focusing on tau, a protein that plays a central role in the disease’s development and progression.
Giliberto and d’Abramo have spent more than two decades studying how tau contributes to neurodegenerative diseases and developing potential therapies that target the protein.
“Our goal is to develop strategies that don’t just slow disease progression, but fundamentally change how Alzheimer’s is treated,” said Giliberto, an associate professor within the Institute of Molecular Medicine at the Feinstein Institutes. “This philanthropic support allows us to pursue a truly innovative line of research and bring together multiple approaches that may lead to more effective therapies.”
The gift will accelerate research examining how the brain’s immune cells, known as microglia, respond to toxic tau protein. Scientists hope the approach will strengthen the brain’s natural ability to clear tau and prevent the damage that leads to cognitive decline.
Funding from the Dejana Foundation will support the recruitment of specialized scientists, the acquisition of new laboratory technologies and expanded collaborations with academic and industry partners.
“We are proud to support research that holds the potential to change the course of Alzheimer’s disease,” said April Schweber, executive vice president of the Peter & Jeri Dejana Foundation. “Driven by a belief in the power of science to improve the lives of patients, we are honored to help fuel a project that could one day bring hope to families affected by this devastating illness.”
Kevin J. Tracey, president and CEO of the Feinstein Institutes and the Karches Family Distinguished Chair in Medical Research, said philanthropic support is essential to advancing innovative medical research.
“Philanthropy plays a vital role in advancing the bold, interdisciplinary science needed to confront Alzheimer’s,” Tracey said. “This extraordinary investment from the Peter & Jeri Dejana Foundation accelerates our abilities to translate discovery into better outcomes.”
The Feinstein Institutes maintains a nationally recognized neuroscience research portfolio funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, spanning basic, translational and clinical research.
