Dr. Julia TCW: Impact update

Solving humanity’s greatest challenges requires bold, visionary researchers who look beyond the traditional confines of science and medicine to create new possibilities. Karen Toffler Charitable Trust fuels the work of these pioneers through our future-focused framework — one that hinges on early-stage research, high-impact ideas, and cross-disciplinary problem-solving. Due to the nascent stages of their…

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The Future of Research: Powershifts and Implications

Close up of liquid being added to a test tube.

The global research and development (R&D) ecosystem is changing rapidly and dramatically. An arena once dominated, fueled, and funded by U.S. federal government organizations like the National Science Foundation, NIH, NASA, Office of Naval Research, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is now being driven — and bankrolled — by investors from industry,…

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MBI Rising Stars: Adithya Gopinath

Toffler Scholar Adithya Gopinath’s research explores the connection between the brain and the peripheral immune system in people with Parkinson’s disease with the goal of developing a blood test to diagnose and monitor the disease and evaluate whether treatments are working. Learn more about his research in this article from University of Florida.

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Deep Learning Algorithm Outperforms Experts in Making Alzheimer’s Diagnosis

About 46.8 million people worldwide were living with dementia in 2015, and this number could double by 2035. Reliably differentiating between normal cognitive aging, mild cognitive impairment, and dementia requires significant clinical acumen from qualified specialists treating memory disorders, yet timely access to memory clinics is often limited for patients and families. Boston University Toffler…

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Alzheimer’s Disease in Women

UCLA Toffler Scholar Dr. Elizabeth Rose Mayeda was part of the team that presented research that begins to give us insight into why Alzheimer’s disease affects more women than men and why the disease seems to progress more quickly in women’s brains. Learn more about her research in this article from NPR.

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Three UCLA Students Receive Toffler Scholar Awards

Cynthia Beard, Lara Yoon, and Catherine Psaras have earned the Toffler Scholar Award. These three students from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health were chosen through a competitive submission process led by the epidemiology department. Learn more about these three students and their research in this article from UCLA.

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Dr. Vijaya Kolachalama: Six-Month Update

Dr. Vijaya Kolachalama and each member of his team earned Toffler Scholar Awards in 2021 at Boston University. They are studying how artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to provide accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and other cognitive disorders. Earlier this summer, we published a piece about Dr. Kolachalama and the groundbreaking research that he…

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Karen Toffler Charitable Trust Announces New Toffler Scholars

The Toffler Scholar Program supports medical investigators engaged in early-stage, innovative medical research. The Karen Toffler Charitable Trust is pleased to announce that fifteen investigators engaged in early-stage research have earned Toffler Scholar Awards. The Karen Toffler Charitable Trust has partnered with six universities across the United States: The University of Florida, Temple University, Boston University, UCLA,…

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