Georgia exploring opportunities to lead in brain health and neuroscience

The Georgia Research Alliance has received a $475,000 grant to explore the opportunities for the state to become a dominant center for brain health and neuroscience.

The Robert W. Woodruff Foundation provided the grant to identify high-impact research opportunities to understand and treat diseases that are part of the brain and nervous system.

The landscape analysis will look at the existing centers and research entities in the fields of brain health and neurosciences and identify possible gaps that could be filled by governments, universities and businesses.

Several leaders in the state believe Georgia is well-positioned to emerge as a global leader in researching and treating Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, ALS, autism, stroke and mental health. Some believe Georgia is already at the forefront.

Allan Levey, director of the Goizueta Brain Health Institute at Emory University and an expert on Alzheimer’s and other brain diseases, sees the opportunities to create a collaborative multidisciplinary approach to study and treat those diseases.

“The ecosystem in Atlanta and Georgia is cross-institutional and interdisciplinary,” Levey said in a telephone interview. “We have built this amazing foundation, which is pretty phenomenal.”

Levey went on to list many of the assets that exist all over the state, ranging from Georgia Tech, Georgia State University, Morehouse School of Medicine, the University of Georgia and Augusta University. All those institutions are part of the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA), which also includes top business leaders and government officials seeking to lift up the state’s presence as a center for research, technology and treatment.

“We are massive,” Levey said. “Few other places have the ecosystem that we have – from the number of institutions, which each have strengths and are richly collaborative. They also are linked to clinical research.”

Dating as far back as 2018, McKinsey & Co. reviewed GRA’s “value proposition” on areas of focus that would bring the most societal and economic benefit to Georgia.

“Alzheimer’s Disease/Brain health emerged as a viable space for GRA to focus, given Georgia’s potential to become a leader and GRA’s ability to play a unique role,” the study said.

The 2018 study also said the state’s diffuse assets could be coordinated “under a cohesive strategy to promote worldwide recognition of Georgia as a brain health leader.”

Dennis Lockhart, who just stepped down as chair of Emory’s Brain Health Center Advisory Council – a position he held for a decade, said the opportunity for Georgia is as strong as ever.

“There’s a lot here,” Lockhart said. “There’s a lot of potential if you can figure out how to create a highly collaborative community of scientists and clinicians who can put Atlanta and Georgia on the cutting edge. An economic development strategy has to figure out how to combine those assets.”

During a recent talk to the Rotary Club of Atlanta, Ravi Thadhani, Emory’s executive vice president for health affairs, challenged the community to view Atlanta’s healthcare assets and research entities as ways to stimulate economic growth. 

He pointed to Rochester, Minnesota (home of the Mayo Clinic), Indianapolis (home of Eli Lilly and Co.), and Boston (a center for biosciences) as cities where the health sciences have become the top economic engine.

“The same could be true for Atlanta and Georgia,” Thadhani said.

“Healthcare and the life sciences can serve as an economic engine to transform a community, support a city, attract talent and spawn industries,” Thadhani said. “Leaders in this community, I hope and sincerely believe, should embrace the life sciences as a priority.”

Meanwhile, Georgia Tech has been developing “Science Square” on the western edge of its campus. “It’s a 10-year project to create a live, work, play community,” said Abbigail Tumpey, Georgia Tech’s executive vice president of institute communications. “We want to make sure we retain biological science expertise in Atlanta.”

Annie Hunt Burriss, who serves on the Advisory Council with Lockhart, was involved in attracting the American Cancer Society to Atlanta in 1988, has seen how the health sciences community, academia, the state and economic development entities can have an impact.

“Why not make Georgia the global capital for brain health?” Burriss asked. “No other location owns the space of being the brain health capital. It’s the right thing at the right time.”

GRA President Tim Denning said the goal of the feasibility study is to identify Georgia’s greatest strengths and build collaboration to create a more impactful ecosystem. GRA is in the final stages of selecting a consultant, and the study should be completed by the end of the year.

The implications for global impact are significant.

Levey said Georgia already has a host of nationally known centers of excellence in the areas of autism, behavioral science, strokes, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, mental health and other areas of neuroscience.

“Brain diseases dwarf other diseases in terms of the global burden on the population,” Levey said. “The next step is to develop more effective treatments to reduce the burden and then to prevent these diseases.”

Levey then applauded the GRA study, which will explore the opportunities in the neuroscience field.

“What’s so nice about this study is that those of us in the field have known we have a gem here,” Levey said. “It’s great to see the community embrace the opportunity.”