Fellowship in Honor of John Seward Johnson Will Support Rutgers–Newark Research on Alzheimer’s Disease

The descendants of a founder of Johnson & Johnson have endowed a postdoctoral fellowship in aging neuroscience to be based at a Rutgers–Newark lab that researches Alzheimer’s disease.

The $1.6 million gift from the River Branch Foundation creates a fellowship named in honor of the late John Seward Johnson. The driving force behind the donation was Jason Gregg, a grandson of Johnson who is a trustee of the foundation, which was overseen for many years by his mother.

Gregg attended a symposium in Colorado last January organized by Rutgers–Newark neuroscientist Mark Gluck, professor of neuroscience and public health and director of the Rutgers Aging & Brain Health Alliance. Gluck’s lab focuses on the early detection and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease in African Americans, who are more than twice as likely to develop the disease yet remain underrepresented in clinical studies.

Over the years, the lab has enrolled more than 800 older African Americans from the surrounding community in research examining how lifestyle choices and environmental factors can influence the trajectory of the disease.

Gregg said he was struck by the lab’s combined focus on community engagement and scientific rigor, which he felt reflected his grandfather’s legacy. “I like that it’s very Newark-centric, and that it has a very Newark, American, and New Jersey take on things,” he said.

He was also mindful of recent changes in the climate for publicly funded research. “Science funding has been facing some tough times,” he added.

The first occupant of the newly endowed position is Miray Budak, who has been a researcher in the lab since 2023. Before moving to the United States, she taught at Istanbul University, coincidentally using Gluck’s undergraduate textbook on learning and memory in her curriculum.

Gluck said of Budak, “She has built upon the foundations of her prior career as a physical therapist to explore a broad range of research studies that seek to discover innovative ways to enhance the quality of people’s bodies and minds as they age.”

Budak said she was deeply honored to be the first recipient of the endowment.

“The fellowship provides not only financial support but also a sense of stability and recognition, allowing me to focus more deeply on my research and long-term goals,” she said. “It creates space to think creatively, pursue new ideas, and move toward establishing an independent research trajectory, which is especially valuable at this stage of my career.”

The family’s gift was accepted by the Rutgers University Foundation, which oversees endowments. It is expected to generate approximately $60,000 per year in investment income, which initially will be used to support pilot research projects led by Budak.

Those efforts include:

• An examination of the gut microbiome to determine how diet influences brain health and Alzheimer’s risk in older African Americans, conducted in collaboration with Tengteng Wang of Rutgers Health. Growing evidence suggests that the trillions of microorganisms in the human gut—including bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other microbes—play a significant role in brain and immune health.
• Using new digital movement-monitoring technologies, Gluck and Budak will work with Jean-François Daneault of Rutgers Health to measure how changes in gait and balance in older adults may predict future cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s risk.
• A study examining whether learning a second language—in this case, Spanish—later in life can create a “cognitive reserve” that helps maintain cognitive function. This project will be conducted in collaboration with Jennifer Austin of the Rutgers–Newark Department of Spanish and Portuguese. Classes will be offered three times a week at a nearby public housing complex for up to six months.
• For the final class each month, students with strong attendance will be treated to a luncheon at a local Spanish restaurant, where participants—and their waiters—will communicate exclusively in Spanish.
  The goal of these pilot studies is to generate data that could lead to larger, sustained funding from the National Institutes of Health. In this way, the new endowment from the Johnson family will be leveraged by Gluck and his colleagues to attract additional support, expand interdisciplinary and cross-departmental research within the Rutgers Aging & Brain Health Alliance, and advance the career of Budak, the inaugural recipient of the endowed postdoctoral fellowship.