Remembering What’s Important: Alzheimer’s Research Advanced by Estate Gift

The toothless smile of your granddaughter. The strawberry milkshakes at that diner where you met your life partner. These are the memories life is made  of—the memories Alzheimer’s disease can obscure, or even erase.

Sadly, as our population ages, the incidence of Alzheimer’s—already America’s most common form of dementia and seventh leading cause of death—is likely to escalate, and especially in Colorado where it has increased 47 percent since 2000.

At the CU School of Medicine on the Anschutz Medical Campus, Alzheimer’s is a promising and important research area that—thanks to a $1.1 million bequest from the estate of Kurt and Edith von Kaulla—is due for a significant boost. The gift allows the Department of Neurology to hire a new faculty member who will help expand research and clinical care in this important area. The gift will advance translation of basic research discoveries into clinical applications, such as studying new drugs or therapies, that offer the potential to slow the disease or treat its symptoms.

The gift originates from a couple who knew the value of medical research firsthand. Kurt was a longtime School of Medicine professor, undertaking blood research in the hematology lab in which Edith worked.

Tomorrow’s School of Medicine researchers will benefit from the legacy—intellectual and philanthropic—the von Kaullas left behind.

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