Alzheimer's institute makes finding cure a top priority
By Michelle Knight knight@theacorn.com

IRIS SMOOT/Acorn Newspapers MAGNETIC SCIENCE- From left, California State University at Channel Islands students Chris Cornett of Ventura, Rob Jeffries of Camarillo and Andy Merithew of Newbury Park work with a 500 MHz Nuclear Magnetic Spectrometer that uses organic particles to gather energy for a powerful electromagnet, which can be used like an MRI machine to analyze samples. Their research is part of a CSUCI program working toward new Alzheimer's medication and treatments. Above left, the students work with a GC-MS machine in the university's science lab, attempting to turn natural oils into novel or patentable substances.

Growing in a cornfield, living in the ocean or packed inside a spice bottle on the pantry shelf could be the cure for Alzheimer's disease. Gilbert Rishton and his team of students are determined to find it wherever it may be.

Rishton is the founder and director of the Channel Islands Alzheimer's Institute, a nonprofit research organization on the campus of California State University at Channel Islands. The institute's mission is to discover new drugs, particularly ones that will not only halt the advance of Alzheimer's but reverse the damage it causes.

"New treatment that could even hold off the onset by five years would dramatically decrease the numbers of Alzheimer's sufferers," Rishton said.

Alzheimer's is a neurodegenerative disease that kills brain cells. As cells die and the brain shrinks, patients experience memory loss, confusion and eventually lose the ability to carry out daily functions. Symptoms may include hallucinations and a change in personality. Patients live on the average for eight to 20 years after diagnosis.

The number of people with the disease is rising. Nearly 5 million people worldwide have Alzheimer's today, twice as many as in 1980, according to the association's website. By 2050, 11 million to 16 million are expected to have the disease.

Officials think current numbers are underestimated, however. Marcia Ortiz, Ventura County director for the Alzheimer's Association California Central Coast Chapter, said only a small percentage of people with Alzheimer's disease are diagnosed.

"For every one person we have, I would say there are 10 people who go undiagnosed," she said.

Today's drugs treat disease symptoms but do nothing to halt progression of the disease or reverse its damage. Rishton plans to turn that around.

Rishton worked on a variety of drug discovery projects as a medicinal chemist for 10 years at Thousand Oaks-based Amgen. The ones that involved Alzheimer's disease always intrigued him.

When the opportunity arose to concentrate on finding a cure, Rishton didn't hesitate. He founded the Channel Islands Alzheimer's Institute in 2004 on the university campus. The arrangement has been convenient and practical for both organizations. The institute has use of the facilities and undergraduate and graduate students to perform the laboratory work. And CSUCI students gain practical handson research experience.

Andrew Mecithew, a biology and biochemistry major from Newbury Park, is unsure whether he'll attend medical or graduate school after he leaves CSUCI. Either way, he can note on his resume the skills and experience of realworld laboratory work that he's learned here.

"It's a really horrible degenerative disease that you see people just getting worse and worse; and if we see something come out of it, then we've done really good research here," Mecithew said.

Symbiotic relationship with the university aside, the institute is financially independent, relying on government and private grants and donations from individuals and businesses to fund research. Grant money, however, is difficult to secure for a small university which has to compete with larger, renowned universities, Rishton said. A steady, reliable income is needed for ongoing research.

To that end, Rishton has pioneered new ground in forming partnerships with commercial cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies. While the institute supplies the people power to perform the laborintensive research, the companies supply the building blocks- natural oils from plants, trees, spices, even ocean algae- in hopes a new product will be discovered that they can market.

Almost any plant, even farm crops, could generate a new drug to treat or cure Alzheimer's, Rishton said. And the potential appears limitless- just one oil extract could produce hundreds of thousands of new drug leads.

The institute owns the potential Alzheimer's treatments and can broker a deal with its cosmetic and pharmaceutical partners if they discover a product marketable for them.

"I couldn't be happier," Rishton said.

The arrangement also advances medical research. Pharmaceutical companies fervently guard all trade information, even failures, which represent a costly investment of resources. Rishton, however, freely shares his research with drug companies and other universities.

But his dogged determination to find a cure for Alzheimer's doesn't blind him to the social devastation the disease causes, said Ortiz, Alzheimer's Association director. Rishton sits on the agency's medical advisory board and lends his support to their events.

"I think it's really important for research to have the connection with people with Alzheimer's and their families," Ortiz said. "We're very happy with our partnership with him."