Sanders-Brown Dinner to Feature Coach Matthew Mitchell

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April, 10, 2015) --  Peter Nelson, the R.C.Durr Endowed Professor in Alzheimer's disease, sits in his office and explains how the efforts of the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Foundation allowed him and his colleagues to identify and name a new age-related disease called PART.

"To make an Alzheimer's diagnosis you need to see two things together in a patient’s brain: amyloid plaques and structures called neurofibrillary tangles composed of a protein called tau, but autopsy studies on patients with dementia have demonstrated that some have tangles but no plaques," said Nelson who has both a medical degree and Ph.D.

"NIH (National Institutes of Health) funding is more competitive than ever, and it can be difficult to find funding for ideas like this one where the impact of the study is more opaque to the average citizen," Nelson said.  "Funding from the SBCoA Foundation is, if you will, the glue that brings the center together and provided us the opportunity to define and develop criteria for PART, which is the first step towards treatment, prevention, and/or cure."

The UK Sanders-Brown Center on Aging has been conducting research on Alzheimer’s disease (AD), stroke and other aging-related concerns for more than 30 years. Through a gift from the Eleanor and John Y. Brown Jr. Foundation and a matching grant from the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging opened in 1979 and is one of 10 original National Institutes of Health-funded Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers.

Today, the center is an internationally prestigious research institution, ranked  No. 1 in the world in recruiting AD clinical trial participants and top tier on multiple other benchmarks in AD research, conducting cutting edge clinical studies that test new therapeutic approaches, producing influential data that explores the mechanisms of aging-related diseases, and identifying new opportunities to slow the progress of disease or prevent it altogether. Collectively, this research represents approximately $7 million in grant funding annually.

But as grant funding for research has become less and less available, Nelson's work and that of others at SBCoA has become more reliant on the efforts of the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Foundation (COAF).

“The foundation board is focused on helping grow awareness and support of the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging and their mission," said Bennett Prichard, COAF board member.

To that end, each year COAF hosts a dinner featuring a guest speaker who is either an example of successful aging or who has a personal connection to Alzheimer’s and age-related diseases. Previous guest speakers have included such well-known figures as Captain Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger, Barbara Bush, Colin Powell, John Glenn, Bob Dole, Willard Scott, Lauren Bacall, Andy Rooney, Hugh Downs, Newt Gingrich, Ed McMahon, Dr. Pearse Lyons and James W. Host. This year, on Thursday, April 23, the Foundation will feature University of Kentucky women's basketball coach Matthew Mitchell.

Coach, athlete and inspirational speaker, Coach Mitchell watched as his mentor, friend and legendary University of Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summit was diagnosed with early onset dementia at the age of 59. To honor her, the Mitchell Family Foundation joined the fight against Alzheimer’s by donating $50,000 to Alzheimer charities in the last two years alone. This passion to make a difference is apparent in all areas of Coach Mitchell’s life.

“We are thrilled to have Coach Mitchell join us on this special night," says Prichard, who is also the dinner committee chair. "He and his wife have been so generous with their time and resources to help with this fight, which is emotionally and financially devastating for both patients and their families. Year after year, the dinner has proven to be a wonderful tool to help us achieve these goals, and it's an honor that the coach is willing to help us with that effort as our special guest and keynote speaker.”

The dinner begins at 6:30 pm with a cocktail reception in the Bluegrass Ballroom of the Lexington Center. Individual tickets to the dinner are $175 or $200 at the door, with proceeds benefiting SBCoA. Corporate and individual table sponsorships are available starting at $1,500. For more information or to purchase tickets, go to: http://www.uky.edu/coa, or contact the SBCoA Foundation at (859) 323-5374 or lisa.greer@uky.edu.