At Indiana University School of Medicine, transforming health is more than a slogan, it’s an essential part of what we’re all about every day. Our research eases suffering, cures disease, and saves the lives of patients here in Indiana and beyond. Your support has been a key ingredient in this work. We’re also actively engaged in important areas such as addressing needs faced by Hoosiers and reducing health disparities. Let’s look at what’s happening.
ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE
Most of us know someone who has been affected by Alzheimer’s disease, a scourge that robs people of their memories, their personalities, and eventually their lives. And it’s not just the afflicted; it’s also those who care for them.
IU School of Medicine is one of the nation’s top Alzheimer’s research centers. We lead the largest and most extensive study of patients with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. We have one of only two Alzheimer’s drug discovery centers in the country, as selected by the National Institute on Aging. And we maintain a national repository of biological samples—DNA, blood, and cells—that we make available to researchers from around the world. Our goals are to find ways to stop this devastating disease, slow its advance or prevent it altogether.
Beyond Alzheimer’s, our neuroscience researchers are working diligently to understand and eventually thwart diseases such as Parkinson’s and Huntington’s, and ALS. We’re poised to greatly expand our research into mood disorders, such as bipolar disease, that affect millions of patients, and those who love them.
HEART DISEASE
We know that heart disease continues to be the No. 1 cause of death in Indiana and across the country. Research happening now at IU School of Medicine promises to change the way physicians treat patients who have just suffered a heart attack.
We’ve long known how urgent it is to quickly reopen blocked arteries in the heart to prevent cardiac cells from dying. But researchers at IU’s Krannert Cardiovascular Research Center have found that—for half of heart attack
patients—devastating damage can continue after blocked arteries are reopened. That’s due to hemorrhaging in smaller vessels downstream from the original blockage. This can slow recoveries and lead to heart failure. Our scientists want to develop therapies to prevent or stop the damage so hearts can heal.
HEALTH DISPARITIES
We know that too many Hoosiers face obstacles to receiving good medical care because of their race or ethnicity, where they live, or the fact they are poor. We are doing more in our curriculum to expose our medical students to these challenges—and how to adapt to them. Beyond the classroom, we are continuing to expand our research to examine not just these obstacles to care, but also the genetic factors that contribute to poor outcomes for some populations.
We’re studying the biological factors that affect outcomes for Black women with aggressive breast cancer. Our research of chronic lung disease found that it disproportionately affects patients of African descent.
Through our regional campus system and our expanding residency programs, we’re working to provide more physicians for rural and urban areas where shortages of physicians keep Hoosiers from getting the care we need.
YOUR SUPPORT MAKES A DIFFERENCE
These are just a few of the areas where your support makes a difference. There are so many others. We have one of the top medical research programs in the country. So much of what we do begins with donors like you, whose support funds our work at early stages, enabling our scientists to pursue new ideas that can make a big difference in the lives of patients.
Thank you for your belief in us, your generosity, and for helping improve the health of Hoosiers and people far beyond Indiana’s borders.