Ric and Jean Edelman, founders of Edelman Financial Services, Fairfax, Va., have offered a $25 million donation to the XPRIZE competition focused on supporting development of innovative approaches to combat Alzheimer's disease. Their announcement was made at last week's 2017 XPRIZE Visioneers Summit in Los Angeles.

"Jean and I are honored to offer this vital funding to encourage innovative approaches to defeat Alzheimer's," Ric Edelman says. "We have seen firsthand the devastating impact of this dreadful disease on so many of our firm's clients, and we are thrilled at the opportunity to support the XPRIZE Foundation and the Alzheimer's Disease Team so we can start working on new ways to detect, diagnose and ultimately eradicate Alzheimer's disease."

The Edelmans' proposed donation is intended to provide vital funding for an XPRIZE competition focusing on Alzheimer's which plans to globally crowdsource solutions for early detection and diagnosis of the disease, in the hopes of ultimately finding a cure. The Alzheimer's Disease Team spearheading the XPRIZE competition believes big data, artificial intelligence and other exponential technologies will lead to breakthroughs to achieve these goals.

Currently, Alzheimer's disease is 100 percent incurable and 100 percent fatal. Alzheimer's disease affects 5.5 million Americans, according to the Alzheimer's Association, a figure that is expected to triple in coming decades. Already, 15 million Americans — usually family members — provide unpaid care to assist those with the disease.

"We have seen so many of our clients' lives devastated by the physical, emotional and financial impact of Alzheimer's," Jean Edelman says. "Now it's time for all of us to work together and crack the code on Alzheimer's, so every retiree — today and in the future — can enjoy true health and happiness, free of this terrible disease."

The idea of an XPRIZE competition focusing on Alzheimer's was conceived in November 2012 by Age Wave visionary Ken Dychtwald, Ph.D., and XPRIZE founder Peter Diamandis, M.D. The Edelmans joined the fight shortly thereafter, working with the Alzheimer's Disease Team created by Dr. Dychtwald to develop an XPRIZE competition focused on Alzheimer's. More than 100 leading neuroscientists, advocates and exponential technology experts contributed to the effort, including the Chevy Chase, MD-based UsAgainstAlzheimer's Coalition. 

"With steadily increasing longevity, it's hard to look at the future without realizing that Alzheimer's disease may very well be the biggest challenge we're going to face this century," says Ken Dychtwald, founder and CEO of Age Wave. "With one in three people over the age of 85 stricken with this horrific disease, this coming pandemic doesn't only affect the elderly — it impacts all of us: our moms, dads, wives, husbands, kids and friends."

A nonprofit organization, XPRIZE is a global leader in incentivized prize competitions. XPRIZE utilizes a unique combination of gamification, crowdsourcing, incentive prize theory and exponential technologies to make 10x (vs. 10%) the impact in the grand challenges facing humanity, the organization says.

For more information about the Alzheimer's Disease Team XPRIZE proposal, visit https://www.xprize.org/visioneers/teams/alzheimers-disease.