URI_Research_Magazine_Momentum_Winter_2015_Melissa-McCarthy

As soon as you start reading this article, your brain begins a journey that allows you not only to recognize symbols and groupings that form words, but also to comprehend information and ideas. How does this happen? When you see a friend, why do you immediately recognize her no matter where you are, but if you see a clerk from your favorite grocery store in an unexpected place, why don’t you immediately recognize him? How do you remember to enjoy your favorite food? If that’s too obvious a question, how do you develop a taste for spinach after hating it during your entire childhood? The answers to these simple questions lie in the puzzle of the brain, a complex system of tissue housing an astonishing electronic network that scientists have only just begun to understand. At the University of Rhode Island (URI), the effort to unlock the secrets of the brain has taken a quantum leap forward with the establishment of the George and Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience, funded by the largest gift ever made to URI.

Game-Changing Generosity

Thomas M. Ryan, a 1975 URI alumnus and former chairman, president and CEO of CVS Health, made the unprecedented $15 million gift in 2013 along with his wife, Cathy, extending their generosity in what has been called by URI Foundation President Michael J. Smith, “a transformational gift for URI.” Hailed by URI President David M. Dooley, state government and health leaders, and scientists at URI who have been studying aspects of the brain for decades, the Ryan Institute is named for Tom Ryan’s parents. He has described the gift as a personal gesture borne of his family’s experience in dealing with his otherwise healthy father, who suffered a stroke and then developed Alzheimer’s disease. Ryan says neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) have reached epidemic proportions, and he sees the potential impact of the Institute in dealing with Rhode Island’s aging population.

“As the population ages, not only in the United States, but globally, it’s going to get worse,” Ryan notes. “I saw what it did to my father, what it did to my mother and our family. The economic costs are one thing, but the personal, emotional costs are another.” The Ryan Institute helps position URI to contribute significantly to research, product development, therapies, and treatments for brain disorders and to collaborate with institutions such as Brown University, Rhode Island Hospital, and others where brain research efforts have expanded. continues on next page

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