Donors give over $325,000 for Alzheimer's research at KU
One Day One KU helps researchers move closer to a cure for Alzheimer's disease.
The University of Kansas Alzheimer's Disease Research Center is one of only 35 centers nationally designated by the National Institute on Aging. The KU ADRC is working to cure Alzheimer's disease, right here in Kansas.
During last year's One Day One KU, the KU ADRC raised over $325,000 from more than 250 gifts and almost 230 donors. Dr. Russell Swerdlow, director of the KU ADRC, said One Day One KU is the largest centralized fundraising event that supports the research center.
"One Day One KU allows us to do so many things, from supporting exciting discovery programs, to building infrastructure, to bringing better care to patients, to training the next generation [of physicians]," Swerdlow said.
Swerdlow said that the discovery programs supported by One Day One KU have helped implement new techniques for generating data during experiments and resulted in more publications in scientific journals.
"Philanthropy has allowed us to create specific programs to train nurse practitioners and other advanced practice providers, which creates more clinic bandwidth, and to cover the expensive costs of graduate student stipends and project costs," Swerdlow said.
In 2020, there were 55,000 people over 65 with Alzheimer's disease or dementia in Kansas, according to the Alzheimer's Association. This number was estimated to increase by 12.7%, to 62,000, last year.
"Donor contributions help us continue investing in cutting-edge imaging equipment and software and allow us to translate our discoveries into tools that physicians can use to protect brain health," said Robyn Honea, neuro-imaging director of the KU ADRC.
The KU ADRC is working and researching to, in Swerdlow's words, "move closer to a world in which no one has to fear Alzheimer's disease." And donor support makes this mission even more achievable.
Donor support has helped the center become the first in the nation to perform blood biomarker testing under CAP CLIA certification, the highest level of laboratory quality standards, and helped expand the KU Brain Health Training Program.
Generosity from donors also powers the outreach for Cognitive Care Network, a statewide initiative that partners with 128 community providers to expand access to dementia diagnosis and support.
"Someone is going to cure Alzheimer's disease," Swerdlow said. "We think it would be great if it were us. Even if we're not the ones who find the cure, we're going to make an important contribution to reaching that goal."
One Day One KU is back: On April 28-29, 2026 from noon to noon, join Jayhawks everywhere in helping the university we love to do extraordinary things — save the date!
