Former S.F. developer Rosenberg steps up his Alzheimer's fight

Douglas Rosenberg.

Douglas Rosenberg is expanding his war against Alzheimer’s disease. Just 19 months after Rosenberg invested the first $3.5 million of $10 million he hopes to raise for Dale Bredesen’s research at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, the lab is on the cusp of leapfrogging a potential Alzheimer’s drug into an overseas trial this fall. Meanwhile, the 54-year-old former San Francisco real estate developer is pursuing other initiatives. He is forming a company around a combination of common supplements that research suggests could stave off Alzheimer’s. He has pulled together a group of researchers to share ideas and data. He is reaching out to other philanthropists, and he is weighing an investment in a drug-development company spun out of the work of Stanford University’s Frank Longo.