Listen in as we learn about the important biomedical research that is happening in Grand Rapids at the Van Andel Institute particularly in terms of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia.

 

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00:07 Lynne Jarman-Johnson: Money, I’m Home. Welcome in. I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson with Consumers Credit Union. From finance to fitness, we have it all. And today, we have a very special guest that’s going to talk to us about something that’s coming up that you won’t want to miss, and it’s a webinar with Van Andel Institute scientists, and we’re going to focus on Alzheimer’s and Lewy body dementia. And you ask yourself, what does that mean? Well, Brett Holleman, who’s the chief philanthropist officer, is here to tell us. Hi, Brett, thank you.

00:34 Brett Holleman: Hi Lynne. It’s great to be here today. It’s such a treat and privilege to join you on your show, and we look forward to the conversation.

00:41 LJJ: Well, I’ll tell you what, we are so excited. We have had a partner with Van Andel Institute through The Purple Community, and many of the events that you hold for many years, with the knowledge that many of our members, and especially, many of our teammates and colleagues, are very passionate about Alzheimer’s, about research for Parkinson’s, research to help us. And here in West Michigan, in Michigan, is this amazing research institute that you are a part of, that truly is incredible and jaw dropping. Tell us a little bit about the Van Andel Institute.

01:18 BH: Yeah, Lynne, for sure. And first, I would be remiss if I didn’t say thanks to you and Consumers Credit Union for being such phenomenal partners. You support us philanthropically. You support us through educational initiatives like this and the public lecture series that we’re doing with you coming up. You support us through volunteers. You guys have just been an amazing champions and ambassadors within the community, and we can’t do what we do without folks like yourself and Consumers Credit Union. So a huge thanks to you and your team. Regarding the Van Andel Institute, it’s kind of a hidden gem. We’re not large as it relates to biomedical research institutes, but we are pretty powerful these days, as we have really developed a global presence in the biomedical research space.

02:03 BH: We focused on primarily two areas, cancer research and then Parkinson’s research, which falls under the umbrella of neurodegenerative research, which is a long way to say that it’s inclusive of Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, Lewy body dementia, and many of the things that you talked about. We have about 450 employees at the Institute, and they represent over 40 different countries. So, we have an extremely large, global population of folks that come into West Michigan, specifically to do research in the areas that I just shared.

02:38 LJJ: Tell us a little bit about how this started. I know that one of the reasons why Consumers is such a strong proponent of Van Andel Institute and the Purple Community is the fact that when we donate our time and when we donate our charitable giving dollars, it’s very specifically staying for 100% research. How does that happen?

03:00 BH: Yes, absolutely. We’ve been fortunate with an incredible gift from Jay and Betty Van Andel. It was always Jay’s vision to start a Biomedical Research Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and against all other odds, and against a lot of public opinion that there’s no way he can do that in Grand Rapids, that he needed to locate that in one of the coasts so that we were in closer proximity to San Francisco or New York City or Boston. He said, “No, I’m thankful for the amazing folks in Grand Rapids in West Michigan, and I’m going to plant it here.” That was nearly, we’re coming up on 25 years ago that we’ve been around. And so, he and Betty established the facility. They made a very generous gift in order to build the building, and then they also provided us with an endowment to help undergird the research and operational side of things.

03:54 BH: So, really, it’s the gift, the legacy gift of Jay and Betty that allows now, today’s philanthropy dollars, to go 100% to research. So, philanthropy dollars don’t keep our lights on. They don’t pave our parking spaces or any of that kind of stuff. So, it does; it goes 100% to research and has a tremendous difference because it allows our scientists actually to be more nimble in their work, to be able to take risks that other organizations aren’t able to fund. And so, we can’t do much of our work without the marriage between both the endowment support that we received, but we certainly can’t do it without the philanthropic support we receive.

04:36 LJJ: Well, fast forward those 25 years, and here we are in a partnership that is going to launch a webinar, coming up with two amazing scientists, and they’re going to be focusing on what’s the latest in Alzheimer’s, and also something you already mentioned called Lewy body dementia. Now, what was interesting is, just in the last few weeks, we’ve heard about a documentary with Robin Williams who, after he passed away, the autopsy showed that he had Lewy body dementia diagnosis, and I believe Parkinson’s, which that then brings up a whole conversation of people who have not heard of some of these things, but it sounds to me like they might be connected.

05:19 BH: Yeah, it’s a great… So we’re going to bring together Rita Guerreiro and José Brás. They’re both born in Portugal. They’ve spent their career literally all over the world. So, they did their education in Portugal. They were with NIH for a bit in the U.S. They were also with 23andMe, because they’re very interested in genetics of Alzheimer’s disease. Then they were at University College London in the UK. And then recently, a couple of years ago, we were finally able to attract their global leading talent to the Van Andel Institute. So, they are up and coming stars in the neurodegenerative space, particularly in that area of genetics and understanding the genetic predispositions for diseases, like you mentioned, a genetic predisposition for Alzheimer’s, Lewy body dementia, Parkinson’s disease.

06:09 BH: And so, they’ve got… Rita just landed an NIH grant for nearly $3 million to help fund some of her research, but the two of them will talk about what are the differences between Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy body dementia? How do we study those diseases, and how do we better understand their impact on the human body?

06:33 LJJ: Well, I don’t know if you know this or not Brett, but my mom suffered from Alzheimer’s, and I can tell you that what is interesting and what we will learn is the fact that the signs and symptoms are different. They’re different for everybody, and sometimes they can mask it something totally… Where your brain isn’t going to Alzheimer’s, your brain’s not going to Lewy body dementia, and yet, boy, if they would have known, we could have helped in different ways.

07:02 BH: Absolutely. I think that’s the challenge in the neurodegenerative space, right, Lynne? Parkinson’s is typically a slow progression disease. Alzheimer’s is, I’m sure you experienced with your mom, is a slow-progressing disease; Lewy body dementia the same. Many of them have comorbidities that are reflective of the various disease types, and we don’t have blood biomarkers that we can take a sample and then definitively know, this is Lewy body dementia, or this is early onset Alzheimer’s, or this is Parkinson’s disease. And so, it’s very difficult currently in current testing and current medicine for us to tease those things apart. And you’re right. If we better understand the genetic predispositions of those diseases, then it allows us to find and develop drug targets that can help slow or stop the progression and independently address each of those diseases because we can’t continue to address them in one single umbrella fashion, because they all do impact the brain in different ways.

08:10 LJJ: It is amazing that we’re going to have the scientists who are literally working on this every single day, day in and day out, which is happening all the time over at Van Andel Institute, and the research that’s going on. Brett, do you mind backing up a minute and letting us know… Many of us who have been in the last few months, very focused on COVID, and how has that changed how research is happening? I mean, to me, that’s all anybody is talking about, and yet, what’s happening with COVID is, people who have these underlying conditions, if they attract COVID, all of a sudden, that becomes a huge issue with potential mortality.

08:56 BH: Yeah, absolutely. The body is a complex organism. The human body is complex. For the Institute, unfortunately, like everybody else, we had to shut down initially and go to a bare bone staff, then we were granted a special Governor’s order that we could bring our researchers back in, because research often is time-sensitive with different experiments and things like that. So today, we’ve got about 150 to 200 people that circulate through the building at some point in the day. So we’ve shifted hours, instead of Monday through Friday, we’re seven days a week, 24 hours a day, and just doing whatever we can to make sure that we socially distance and keep our employees safe and all of that sort of thing, but we’re game on with research.

09:50 BH: The unfortunate part with COVID, or with cancer and Parkinson’s, is they didn’t stop despite COVID. And so, we still have folks that we feel passionate to serve and to help within our community. And I think in the long run, we’ll better understand even how has COVID impacted potential disease states like cancer and Parkinson’s. It’s just going to take a long time for us to be able to get there. It has shown the spotlight on the need for biomedical research and the important role that it plays in human health today.

10:24 LJJ: Well, Brett, I’ll tell you what, one of the things that we have coming up, which was going to look a lot different when we first started planning this, is our lecture series, and our first one does kick off September 16th, which is at noon. So, grab your lunch bag. It is complementary. But I’ll tell you what, to have these two scientists helping us understand something that now we get we need to learn about.

10:48 BH: Yeah, absolutely. So, Rita and José will join us. They’ll have a PowerPoint because these are complex diseases that it’s difficult for us, lay people, to understand. Unfortunately, they’re diseases that touch many of our lives, whether like you said, it’s a mom, or a relative, or close friend. These are diseases that hit pretty close home to heart. And unfortunately, as the population ages, so do the increased cases of disease states. And so, we want to do our best part to, like I said, to stop or slow such disease progression, but even to be able to determine biomarkers so that we can better test and better understand early onset and figure out what and how to handle these.

11:32 LJJ: Well, thank you so much, Brett, and you’ll be able to find a link of how to register for this complementary lecture series. One you will not want to miss. It is Alzheimer’s Association Month in the sense of really learning about Alzheimer’s, too. So, we have been partnering with the Alzheimer’s Association for many, many years on our walk, which again, that needs to be virtual too, Brett. So, it’s all good when we get together to learn more.

12:00 BH: It sure is, and I know, I’m sure you feel the same way, but I know that we’re eager to be back fully in person with folks. As great as virtual things are, and we can still continue to carry a message, we’re eager to all be back together.

12:15 LJJ: Well, Brett, thank you so much. And for all of you listening, thank you so much. If you’d like to send your topics our way, we’d be glad to interview those that you find interesting. But I’ll tell you what, this seminar, you’ll definitely want to get on. It is complimentary at lunch time with two of the scientists from Van Andel Institute to help us learn more about Alzheimer’s, Lewy body dementia, and where we are really right now in the research to fight these horrible diseases. So thanks, Brett.

12:44 BH: Thanks, Lynne, and we’ll see you all soon.

12:46 LJJ: September 16.

12:48 BH: That’s right.

12:49 LJJ: And thanks again, thank you, Jake Esselink for your unbelievable production skills. Money, I’m Home with Lynne Jarman-Johnson, Consumers Credit Union, and you.

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