Partnerships

In 2007, the American Health Assistance Foundation (the former name of BrightFocus Foundation) partnered with the American Heart Association (AHA) by awarding $896,000 to fund six promising young cardiovascular researchers. This grant money had been part of AHAF's National Heart Foundation (NHF). As part of the phase out process for the successful NHF program, BrightFocus furthered its commitment to age-related disease research by contributing its NHF funds to AHA.

AHAF and AHA also coordinated on a joint public education effort centered on the relationship between cardiovascular disease and glaucoma, macular degeneration and Alzheimer's disease. In the spring of 2008, the two organizations distributed a "tip card" (including a magnet) with information on heart disease and eye disease. The back of the card features an Amsler grid and a blood pressure tracker which can be placed in a convenient spot in the home. A more comprehensive publication is being developed.

BrightFocus Foundation has entered into a partnership with BioMed Central's open access journal, Molecular Neurodegeneration (MN), in which MN is now the official journal of BrightFocus. The open access publishing model provides articles for free to the general public as well as scientists, clinicians and other healthcare practitioners.

Molecular Neurodegeneration publishes peer-reviewed, original scientific research on the causes of neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, and on the pre-clinical testing of potential therapies for these devastating diseases. According to the ISI Web of Knowledge by Thomson Reuters, MN was ranked in the top 16 percent of journals among the 'neurosciences' category (debuted with a 5.09 impact factor).