Dr. Miranda Orr Wins Prestigious Melvin R. Goodes Prize for Excellence in Alzheimer’s Drug Development

The ADDF’s Goodes Prize recognizes research innovation guided by the biology of aging

On Thursday, September 22, the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) presented Miranda E. Orr, PhD, Assistant Professor of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, with the 2022 Melvin R. Goodes Prize for Excellence in Alzheimer’s Drug Development for her pioneering work to translate the biology of aging into effective treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. The annual award honors prominent scientists who are recognized for their work in the Alzheimer’s clinical trial space and was presented at the Eighth Annual Melvin R. Goodes Prize Luncheon.

“Dr. Orr’s research is a critical part of this pivotal moment in Alzheimer’s research, as the focus shifts toward how the biology of aging, an approach in part pioneered by the ADDF, underlies Alzheimer’s disease,” says Dr. Howard Fillit, Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer at the ADDF. “Dr. Orr’s groundbreaking work, now in a phase 2 clinical trial with support from the ADDF, is evaluating a treatment targeting aging cells in the brains of people with mild cognitive impairment or early-stage Alzheimer’s disease.”

Dr. Orr has a unique perspective on how aging affects brain cells and contributes to neurodegeneration. Her work is targeting “zombie” or senescent cells. These cells develop mechanisms to avoid the natural death cycle that should come to all cells, and instead they live on, accumulating in the brain, causing brain inflammation and releasing damaging toxins.

Her Senolytic Therapy to Modulate the Progression of Alzheimer’s Disease (SToMP-AD) trial will measure the safety of a combination treatment, as well as its impact on clearing senescent cells and whether that results in improvements in memory, attention, reasoning, and language, among other measures of dementia.

The Goodes Prize, named for Melvin R. Goodes, a distinguished leader in the pharmaceutical industry, is awarded each year to an innovative researcher who has made a significant and lasting impact in the Alzheimer’s field. The prize includes $150,000 to further the awardee’s research.

“One of the reasons Mel and I sponsor the Goodes Prize is to honor all those in the front lines of this work,” said Nancy Goodes. “Our goal is to help, in a tangible way, to execute the mission of the ADDF—to somehow, someday, contain or even cure this dreadful disease.”

"What an incredible honor to be a recipient of this award, and to be in the company of the prior awardees whose pioneering research has similarly benefited from the generosity of the ADDF and Mel and Nancy Goodes,” said Dr. Orr. “It is also a wonderful endorsement of the work we’re doing to understand and target biological aging as an underlying cause of Alzheimer’s disease. We hope our study helps bring us another step closer to having multiple treatment options and approaches that can be combined and personalized to improve the outlook for millions of Americans and tens of millions of others with Alzheimer’s around the world.”

Notable guests Nancy Goodes, Bonnie Lautenberg, Christine Ansbacher, Larry Leeds and Ginger Feuer, Lynn Tishman, Cobey Rapaport, Jean Sharf, Carol Boulanger, Janice Worth, Alice Shure, and Bonnie Pfeifer Evans were among the supporters in attendance.

“My brother and I founded the ADDF because we saw how this disease devastated so many people across the world,” said Ronald S. Lauder, Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of the ADDF. “I can say, thanks to the work of the ADDF and the talented scientists they fund, that we are well on our way, now more than ever, to finding effective ways to prevent Alzheimer’s disease.”

The event featured a thought-provoking discussion on the most promising therapies in the drug pipeline with Dr. Howard Fillit and current and previous Goodes Prize recipients: Frank Longo, MD, PhD, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine and Founder of PharmatrophiX; D. Martin Watterson, PhD, John G. Searle Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry and Professor of Pharmacology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine; Roberta Diaz Brinton, PhD, Director of the Center for Innovation in Brain Science at the University of Arizona and serves on the ADDF’s Board of Governors; Michela Gallagher, PhD, Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and Head of the Neurogenetics and Behavior Center at Johns Hopkins University and Founder of AgeneBio; Jerri M. Rook, PhD, Research Instructor in the Department of Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University in the Vanderbilt Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery; Miia Kivipelto, MD, PhD, Founder of the FINGERS Brain Health Institute, Professor of Clinical Geriatrics at the Karolinska Institute Center for Alzheimer Research, and Senior Geriatrician and Director for Research and Development of Medical Unit Aging at Karolinska University Hospital, and serves on the ADDF’s Board of Governors; and Dr. Orr, PhD.