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Independent Byrd Institute Will Better Serve Public

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By HUNTINGTON POTTER Special to the Tribune

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 2, 2008

With 450,000 Alzheimer's disease patients, Florida has both a tremendous obligation and a unique opportunity to pursue research to make Alzheimer's a "disease of the past."

In just a few years, the Johnnie B. Byrd Alzheimer's Center and Research Institute has made great strides towards this goal and has attained both a state-wide impact and a worldwide reputation.

We have almost 80 employees and contract researchers all over Florida, 172 publications and seven new potential treatments for Alzheimer's disease have been discovered based on Byrd institute research, we have performed numerous clinical trials of new Alzheimer's drugs and developed valuable intellectual property.

Furthermore, the independence of the Byrd Institute as a neutral territory for collaborative statewide research allowed it to lead the first successful effort to bring to Florida the prestigious award of an "Alzheimer's Disease Research Center" (ADRC) from the National Institutes of Health.

This success is paralleled by careful attention to the institute's finances, as three years of independent audits reiterate that the institute's administrative expenses/revenues are well below the 15 percent Better Business Bureau benchmark for nonprofits with no material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting. We are very careful with the money that is entrusted to us.

The success of the Byrd institute owes much to its outstanding design - an Alzheimer's Research Institute that is integrative of clinic and laboratory, multidisciplinary, statewide and state-supported, and multiply affiliated.

It has served the institute well to have been partly modeled after the Moffitt Cancer Center, another similarly independent institute on the University of South Florida campus that has accomplished a great deal in a short period of time, to the benefit of all.

Therefore, most members of the Byrd institute's board of directors and the State of Florida Alzheimer's Disease Advisory Committee, as well as researchers worldwide and outspoken supporters in the Florida Legislature, have voiced their support for maintaining the independent status of the institute, which has proven to be an essential component of its success.

After careful deliberation, the Legislature seems to understand that independence is the best road for the Byrd Alzheimer's institute to continue its fight against Alzheimer's, with the expectation that mutually supportive affiliation agreements with other Florida institutions will continue to be developed.

Due to the current state budget crisis, the institute might have to forgo state funding for the coming year. This might slow us down, but with our carefully managed reserves and the help of supportive Floridians, we will not let up in our fight to cure Alzheimer's disease. As an essential part of that fight, Floridians designed and built an independent statewide Alzheimer's Institute to promote inter-institutional collaborations and to recruit world-class Alzheimer's researchers to this state.

With everyone's collaboration and the support of all Floridians, the Byrd Alzheimer's Institute can continue its success and serve its motto - Research today: Memories forever.

Huntington Potter, Ph.D., is CEO and scientific director of the Johnnie B. Byrd Sr. Alzheimer's Center and Research Institute.

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