A historic gift has set the stage for a new era in Alzheimer’s disease research, education, patient care and community outreach at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine.
The Gorrie family, who have long been among the university’s most dedicated supporters and champions, have contributed $10 million to expand and elevate the work of UAB faculty, staff and trainees working to better understand, treat and potentially cure Alzheimer’s disease.
The University of Alabama System Board of Trustees approved the renaming of the Frances Gorrie Alzheimer’s Disease Center that will catalyze medical innovation, strengthen the pipeline of rising Alzheimer’s specialists, attract internationally recognized experts in the field, enhance the quality of patient care in the region and connect communities across the state to critical resources.
“Alzheimer’s disease has touched far too many families, including people I care deeply about,” said Miller Gorrie, founder of Brasfield & Gorrie, one of the nation’s largest privately held construction firms. “Supporting UAB’s work is my way of honoring those journeys and helping move us closer to better treatments, more hope and, one day, a cure.”
A looming crisis
The United States population is aging at a rate not seen since the late 1800s, and the prevalence of Alzheimer’s and related neurodegenerative diseases is rising alongside it. As of the 2020 census, one in six Americans is 65 or older, and more than 7 million U.S. residents have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, that number could nearly double by 2050, with health and long-term care costs approaching $1 trillion.
The top risk factor for dementia is age:
- 5 percent of people ages 65-74 have Alzheimer’s dementia
- 13.2 percent of people ages 75-84 have Alzheimer’s dementia
- 33.4 percent of people age 85+ have Alzheimer’s dementia
Alabama is no exception to these trends. More than 103,600 Alabama residents, including nearly 12 percent of seniors, currently live with Alzheimer’s. In 2024, Alabama had the sixth-highest rate of Alzheimer’s-related deaths in the country — a 166 percent increase from 2000 — and it remains one of the leading causes of death in the state.
Meeting the challenge
UAB has been at the forefront of the fight against Alzheimer’s in Alabama since 1991, when the university’s Alzheimer’s Disease Center was first established. From the beginning, the center has embraced a comprehensive approach, pursuing research, education, patient care and community outreach as mutually reinforcing components of a greater mission.
“The Gorrie gift in support of the UAB Alzheimer’s Disease Center comes at an exciting and critical moment,” said David Standaert, M.D., Ph.D., John N. Whitaker Professor and chair of the UAB Department of Neurology. “Research has brought us new discoveries and treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and related conditions, and more are in the pipeline. At the same time, the aging of our population means that more people and families will be impacted by these conditions. This gift will accelerate the process of discovery, support the training of additional specialists, and help us to empower the Alabama community with knowledge and access to care.”
Building on this 35-year foundation of excellence and holistic strategy, the Frances Gorrie Alzheimer’s Disease Center will ensure that progress in one area of the center’s mission strengthens each of the others. The center’s mission includes:
- Clinical trials: UAB currently conducts between five and seven Alzheimer’s-related clinical trials at a given time. The Gorrie family’s support will enable the Alzheimer’s Disease Center to aggressively increase these efforts, offering more patients access to cutting-edge translational research that may result in life-changing therapies. New anti-amyloid therapies, for example, have recently been shown to slow Alzheimer’s disease progression by as much as 30 percent after decades of clinical trials.
- Education: The need for cognitive neurology specialists is already great — the pipeline produces about 30 specialists per year — and will only continue to grow as the population ages. To meet this demand, the Frances Gorrie Alzheimer’s Disease Center will prioritize expanding fellowship opportunities for emerging specialists.
- Community Care and Outreach: The Alzheimer’s Disease Center supports the Brain Aging and Memory Clinic through UAB Medicine — the only clinic of its kind serving patients in Alabama and the Florida Panhandle region — and sees more than 26,000 patients living with neurological disorders annually. To meet the growing need for comprehensive dementia care in the state, the Gorrie family’s generosity will expand access through the Alabama Memory and Alzheimer’s Network.
A portion of the Gorrie family’s gift will be used to create endowed faculty positions, which are essential tools for recruiting, recognizing and retaining experts in the field to UAB. These endowments will enhance the quality of training the Frances Gorrie Alzheimer’s Disease Center provides, alongside securing protected time for faculty research projects that might otherwise not be feasible.
Modeled on successful systems in neighboring states, this network will train caregivers to meet the needs of patients with Alzheimer’s; strengthen connections between the Frances Gorrie Alzheimer’s Disease Center and state and local care groups, including primary care physicians; and provide individual families with greater knowledge and access to available resources, reinforcing the infrastructure needed to serve an aging population.
A living legacy
The Frances Gorrie Alzheimer’s Disease Center is far from the first major investment the Gorrie family has made in UAB, or even in the university’s neurological research efforts: Twelve years prior to this historic gift, Miller Gorrie committed $1 million to accelerate neurodegenerative disorder research in the Heersink School of Medicine.
Thanks to the generosity of the Gorrie family and Brasfield & Gorrie, students in the UAB School of Engineering are thriving in the world-class learning environment provided by Frances and Miller Gorrie Hall. They have been key boosters of UAB Athletics, from the Football Operations Center that marked a new era in Blazer Football to the recent campaign to renovate Bartow Arena. The Gorries’ visionary partnership has also been critical to the success of strategic initiatives such as Live HealthSmart Alabama, establishing a proof of concept in Birmingham’s Kingston neighborhood that continues to benefit communities throughout our state.
“The Gorrie family’s longtime philanthropy and involvement have helped advance all parts of UAB’s mission — from education to research and patient care to the arts,” said UAB President Ray Watts. “This generous gift to name the Frances Gorrie Alzheimer’s Disease Center will dramatically accelerate our research and the training of young investigators, open new doors in our understanding of this devastating disease, and ultimately, lead to life-changing new treatments. We are deeply grateful to the Gorries for this transformational gift and the impact it will have on patients and their families for years to come.”
As the need for skilled, compassionate Alzheimer’s disease care and innovative research mounts in the coming decades, the Frances Gorrie Alzheimer’s Disease Center will ensure that the Gorrie family’s remarkable legacy continues to make a difference where it matters most.
Courtesy of the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
