San Antonio scientists pushing for $3B dementia research fund

Extra state funding for brain disease research on the ballot this November could have a big impact in San Antonio and South Texas, home to a federally designated Alzheimer’s disease research center and a population that faces higher rates of dementia.

The Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas was approved by state lawmakers earlier this year with bipartisan support. But voters will have a chance to weigh in on Proposition 14 this November, which would allocate $3 billion in state funding for the institute.

Modeled after the state’s Cancer Prevention and Research Institute formed in 2007, DPRIT would administer grants to researchers studying Parkinson’s disease, dementia and other brain diseases. It would be the largest state-funded brain disease research fund of its kind.

“We see every day the concerns of patients and the heartbreaking stories of patients and families,” said Dr. Sudha Seshadri, founding director of UT San Antonio’s Glenn Bigg’s Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases.

Seshadri is also the director of the South Texas Alzheimer’s Disease Center, one of 37 Alzheimer’s research centers funded by the National Institute on Aging.

“[CPRIT] has been quite effective at making Texas a global leader in finding cures for cancer, and the hope is that something similar can happen for dementia,” she said.

Statewide support

State lawmakers passed the formation of DPRIT — and its inclusion on the November ballot — with broad bipartisan support earlier this year.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said it was one of his top priorities in this year’s legislative session “after visiting with many Texans suffering from dementia, along with their families,” he said in a news release. “Texas will become the premier destination for dementia prevention and research and Texans will have access to the best dementia care in the world, right here at home.”

Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, a degenerative brain disease characterized by memory loss and a decline in cognitive abilities.

Typically occurring in people 60 and older, the disease afflicts roughly 459,000 Texans, about 12% of the state’s population over the age of 65, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. DPRIT would study other neurodegenerative diseases as well, including Parkinson’s disease.

The state’s Cancer Prevention and Research Institute was established with the approval of 61% of Texas voters in 2007. The organization had a rocky start, with allegations of corruption over how the institute awarded state funds to commercial research projects. The agency was restructured after the fallout. In 2015, a former high-ranking CPRIT official was found not guilty of deceiving colleagues to secure an $11 million grant for a biotechnology firm.

The state Republicans who oppose the formation of DPRIT have pointed to those issues, as well as concerns about how much state funding would be spent, as reasons for their opposition. If approved, Proposition 14 would authorize up to $3 billion in funding over 10 years for DPRIT, capped at $300 million annually. The institute would likely not have a brick-and-mortar building, according to Seshadri.

Texas Policy Research, a conservative think tank, labeled DPRIT “yet another bureaucratic monstrosity with little accountability or guarantees of success.” And state Rep. Brian Harrison (R-Midlothian) described the institute as “corporate welfare on steroids.”

But the institute has the backing of most state lawmakers and medical organizations and advocacy groups like the national Alzheimer’s Association, Texas Assisted Living Association, Texas Medical Association, the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, among others.

High-risk, high-reward

Along with Seshadri and the several brain disease research center she directs, Proposition 14 and DPRIT has the backing of BioMedSA, a convener of biomedical research organizations and startups, and the Mind Science Foundation, a nonprofit that awards grants to neuroscience research.

Brain research is not cheap, explained Marissa Rodriguez, the new CEO at Mind Science Foundation. A lot of dementia research is high-risk, high-reward, and this often turns off private investors.

“But that could be what unlocks progress,” she said. “When you’re thinking about tackling something like dementia, that is how you break the frontiers, by investing in those high-risk [projects].”

Rodriguez and Seshadri also emphasized the importance of being able to attract talented researchers and keep them here long term as game-changers for San Antonio and dementia research in South Texas.

Of the 37 federally designated Alzheimer’s research centers in the U.S., San Antonio is home to the one with the largest Hispanic population, which faces higher rates of the disease and has historically been underrepresented in clinic trials and research, Seshadri said.

The rate of Alzheimer’s in South and West Texas among those 65 and older is higher than the rest of the state, according to a 2023 county-level study published in the Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, which also found elevated rates among Black and Hispanic populations.

In Bexar County, 13% of adults 65 and older had the disease, compared to the state average of just under 12%. Other South Texas counties faced rates as high as 16%, and Presidio County in West Texas had an 18% prevalence rate.

“We don’t completely understand why,” Seshadri said. “Some part of it may be genetic, some part of it may be a higher risk of things like diabetes, which in turn increases risk of dementia. And South Texas, Hispanic or non-Hispanic, may have a higher risk than some other parts of the country. Is some of it environmental? We don’t know.”

Future grants through DPRIT could help researchers untangle the factors that contribute to these risks, as well as advance prevention efforts, she said.

“Anything we can do to speed up the day that dementia is a manageable diagnosis …  I’m hopeful that it’s going to make a difference,” Seshadri said.