New prize will reward new ideas

Xconomy
Texas –

San Antonio – A billionaire from Texas is funding a new contest that will give $ 4 million to seven people who have promising ideas about the cause of Alzheimer's disease and say they will try to prove it.

Called the Oskar Fischer Project, the program will give the grand prize winner $ 2 million in total, while two others will receive $ 500,000 each and four more will receive $ 250,000 each. To top it off, the money comes without it being necessary to complete the project or make any specific decisions. Although the goal of the project is to allow the laureates to research the causes of Alzheimer's disease – and the project's founders will be able to find out about the laureates at some point – funding is given directly to them. to give them more freedom. focus on determining the basic potential of Alzheimer's disease. The program is open to everyone, not just scientists, and no previous track record in Alzheimer's research is required. Applicants must simply submit a proposal.

It is unusual and potentially risky to award such a substantial reward to a person, especially without requiring milestones or specific milestones. James Truchard, who provides the funds needed to fund the project, states that he is not worried because he is able to take this kind of risk.

"I do not have a profession to defend or a reputation to keep," says Truchard in a phone interview. "If I lose my reputation because I give the price to someone who does not have a good idea, I'm willing to take that risk."

Truchard is the co-founder of National Instruments, an Austin-based company, which reported a net business figure of nearly $ 1.3 billion in 2017 and intended for scientists and engineers who use it to instrumentation tests. Truchard, who trained as an electrical engineer, stepped down as president and chief executive officer in 2017, but remains chairman of the board of the company that he co-founded in 1976 while He was working full time at the University of Texas at Austin.

Truchard, 75, has a personal connection to the problem. his first wife, Lee, had vascular dementia and had died in 2012 from a cerebral aneurysm. He started learning about neurodegenerative diseases and wanted to do more. Truchard does not have a background in biology or neuroscience – and prize candidates do not need it either. Winners will be selected based on their ability to demonstrate that they could achieve the project goal. Truchard believes that a person who takes a multidisciplinary approach may be able to find unpublished data and data in scientific research.

"It's a complex problem, so you'll need someone who can really think across borders," says Truchard. "I hope that there will be a genie somewhere that can assemble all the pieces of the puzzle and provide a good explanation."

The University of Texas at San Antonio administers the project and has received a donation of $ 5 million from Truchard to establish it. Truchard is doing similar work in other universities, including UT Austin, Baylor and UCLA, by funding more than 10 research projects on everything from bacteria to viruses to infrared lights. He does this work under the name of Oskar Fischer project and lends the name to UTSA for the Alzheimer's Challenge. In May, he announced that he would join the Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group and the American Heart Association / American Stroke Association by committing $ 43 million to fund a separate project on Alzheimer's.

According to George Perry, researcher on Alzheimer's disease and chief scientist of the UTSA Consortium on Brain Health, who heads the Oskar Fischer project, about $ 1 million on a $ 5 million donation is being used for the advertising and project administration. in San Antonio. Perry has announced his intention to launch a call for proposals in February 2019. He and a group of other researchers (many of whom will come from Texas) will review the proposals to determine who is selected.

The winners will probably not be selected for a while: it is planned to promote the Oskar Fischer project worldwide in the next year, if not more, in order to attract the largest pool of candidates. Hopefully the selection committee would pick the winners … Next page "