MetLife Foundation today announced the two recipients of the 2015 MetLife Foundation Awards for Medical Research—Randall Bateman, Charles F and Joanne Knight distinguished professor of neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, USA, and Christian Haass, professor of biochemistry, Ludwig Maximilians University München, and German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Munich, Germany.
Bateman and Haass have now joined a roster of past winners whose work has gone onto receive Noble prizes.
The winners were first announced during a session at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (18–23 July, Washington DC, USA) and later celebrated at a scientific briefing and awards ceremony. Organised by the American Federation for Aging Research, the evening awards ceremony included a researching briefing featuring each awardee as well as special remarks by Marie Bernard, deputy director of the National Institute on Aging.
“MetLife Foundation is proud to present these major awards to Bateman and Haass for their exceptional scientific research contributions, which help bring us closer to finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease,” said A Dennis White, president and chief executive officer, MetLife Foundation. “Their outstanding contributions, recognised around the world, have helped us better understand this devastating illness, and both awardees have laid the groundwork leading to effective treatments.”
According to recent estimates, without the development of treatments that either delay the onset or slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, by 2050 as many as 200 million people worldwide will be living with the disease.
“Even modest advances in preventing or delaying Alzheimer’s disease, championed by recipients of the MetLife Foundation Awards for Medical Research, will have a huge global public health impact,” White shared.
