Bill Gates invests $100 million in Alzheimer’s research

Bill Gates will invest $100 million toward fighting Alzheimer’s, the billionaire Microsoft co-founder announced Monday.

Half of the $100 million, from Gates’s personal fund, will go toward the Dementia Discovery Fund and the rest will go toward start-up ventures working in Alzheimer’s research. 

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“We’ve seen scientific innovation turn once-guaranteed killers like HIV into chronic illnesses that can be held in check with medication. I believe we can do the same (or better) with Alzheimer’s,” Gates said in a blog post on his website. 

He said that members of his family have had Alzheimer’s. 

“I know how awful it is to watch people you love struggle as the disease robs them of their mental capacity, and there is nothing you can do about it. It feels a lot like you’re experiencing a gradual death of the person that you knew.”

Alzheimer’s is the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S. among all adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and affects about 5.4 million Americans.