Stanford’s Unique Role
“At Stanford, we do not intend to predict the future of medicine,
we intend to create it.”
Philip A. Pizzo, MD, PhD
Carl and Elizabeth Neumann Dean
Stanford University School of Medicine
Each year the pharmaceutical industry pours more and more funds into the development of new drugs to treat the symptoms of Alzheimer's. Despite this large investment, however, the number of truly novel and effective therapies created each year continues to decline. As a result, a consensus has emerged that the discovery of most new treatments in the future will derive from universities committed to multidisciplinary research and the translation of basic discoveries to the patient care setting.
The Neuroscience Institute. The Neuroscience Institute at Stanford (NIS) provides a focal point for the many faculty in the various Stanford schools with interests in neuroscience. The Alzheimer’s Translational Research Center will be integrated with NIS programs and this interaction will make available powerful technologies at the cutting edge of brain research. The NIS will play a key role in bringing a wide range of multidisciplinary expertise to the challenge of preventing and treating AD.
An extraordinary degree of collaborative activity. Faculty members across the Stanford schools have developed a degree of interdisciplinary collaboration that is rare even among elite academic institutions. Stanford’s Bio-X program is viewed as a national prototype for innovative cross-school collaboration. Only 25 per cent of U.S. medical schools are located on a broad university campus. At Stanford, the proximity and unusually close working relationships among faculty in the School of Medicine and other Stanford schools provides a powerful multidisciplinary platform for therapeutic discovery, especially when coupled with the contiguity of the university to Stanford Hospital & Clinics and the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. Each of the Stanford faculty members engaged in Alzheimer’s work are involved in extensive collaborative efforts. For example, Dr. Stephen Smith's imaging laboratory works with prominent Stanford investigators and national leaders in the Alzheimer’s field, including Drs. Brad Hyman and Dennis Selkoe at Harvard.
Outstanding faculty focused on cutting-edge areas of research. A critical mass of faculty members in various departments and schools at Stanford are already focused on AD research and the development of new treatments. Many of these investigators are national and international leaders in their respective fields. The proposed Center will promote the recruitment of additional talented faculty and students to insure that Stanford continues as a world leader in this field.
A powerful translational environment. Stanford is the birthplace of a major portion of the biotechnology industry. Also unique to Stanford is the extent to which faculty members interact with leading edge biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies – a key component of the overarching mission of the School of Medicine in Translating Discoveries. These interactions infuse a sense of both cutting-edge perspective and a sophisticated sense of real world strategy in creating effective treatments for challenging diseases. Stanford’s proximity to the venture capital community provides a very powerful tool to bring new drugs and treatments developed by its faculty into real world use.