By David Marcinek, Jessica Young, Suman Jayadev, Thomas Grabowski and C. Dirk Keene / For The Herald
We are writing as leaders of research centers at University of Washington Medicine focused on combating the effects of age and Alzheimer’s disease on quality of life.
While the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has been in the news recently, its impact on individuals and communities has received less attention. The NIH is more than just a research administration in Washington, D.C. It is the country’s cornerstone for basic health research, bringing us countless medical breakthroughs over the years. Its success is built on decades of bipartisan support, weathering national economic challenges, political shifts and pandemics.
Advances in health care driven by NIH-funded research have significantly contributed to the growing population of healthy older Americans. In fact, the U.S. population over age 65 is predicted to rise from 57 million in 2022 to 78 million by 2040 (At that time, they are expected to represent 22 percent of the population and account for up to 20 percent of health care costs in the United States.
Because aging is universal, people don’t often think about how much age-related biological changes themselves contribute to chronic conditions such as heart disease, dementia and cancer. In fact, aging is the single-greatest risk factor for developing these conditions; greater than smoking or an unhealthy diet.
The clear interaction between aging and chronic disease has led scientists to focus on maximizing healthspan, the period of life that is free from illness and disability, to improve people’s quality of life. It turns out that directly targeting aging is the best way to do this. Research suggests that directly targeting aging could extend the average healthspan twice as much as curing cancer would.
Accordingly, the National Institute on Aging, an NIH institute, has established a nationwide network of centers dedicated to improving the healthspan of Americans. This network includes 34 Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers (ADRC) as well as eight Nathan Shock Centers of Excellence that are focused on the basic biology of aging. These centers also train the next generation of local scientists to investigate healthy aging.
Our centers are some of the oldest members of this national network. For decades, we have led research efforts on aging and its health impacts. The network’s centers work together to drive innovation. For instance, collaborations with UW Medicine’s Nathan Shock Center have led to over 300 publications, the development of new biomarkers to assess healthy aging, and a deeper understanding of how lifestyle and interventions can extend healthspan.
The Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, associated with the UW Medicine Memory and Brain Wellness Center, coordinates with a national network to collect longitudinal data and biomarkers from participants across the country. Alzheimer’s is a complex disease, and studies require data from tens of thousands of participants to uncover meaningful insights about its biology.
Therapies are more effective if implemented before the brain changes associated with Alzheimer’s become irreversible. One of the priorities of ADRCs is to identify biomarkers in biofluids and brain imaging that signal the very early stages of Alzheimer’s, so that we can identify those at risk and provide timely treatment.
Our basic research has also yielded new insights into the complex processes that cause or accelerate Alzheimer’s.
We are now at a crucial juncture in translating these findings into therapies. In 2025, both of our centers focused on healthy aging submitted applications for funding renewal, which were highly rated by peer scientists.
However, funding freezes and disruptions at the NIH have caused significant delays in these critical projects. These delays, which we share with other centers in our networks, could set back progress in aging and neurodegeneration research and hinder the recruitment of the next generation of scientists.
Most people have firsthand experience with the personal and financial costs of age-related disease and disability.
To maintain the progress made over the past decade in extending health and improving the quality of life in our aging population, it is essential to continue funding aging-focused research.
The opinions expressed above belong solely to the authors and do not represent the views of the University of Washington School of Medicine.
David Marcinek is professor of radiology and laboratory medicine and pathology in the UW School of Medicine and co-director of the UW Nathan Shock Center.
Jessica Young is associate professor of laboratory medicine and pathology in the UW School of Medicine and co-director of the UW Nathan Shock Center.
Dr. Suman Jayadev is professor of neurology in the UW School of Medicine and associate director and clinical core lead of the UW Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.
Dr. Thomas Grabowski is professor of radiology and neurology in the UW School of Medicine and director of the UW Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.
Dr. C. Dirk Keene is professor of laboratory medicine and pathology for the UW School of Medicine, associate director and neuropathology core lead of the UW Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.
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