By Raquel Torres

The sun had barely risen over Austin on a brisk February morning, but Gladys Maestre’s mind had been at work for hours. She’d spent the night — and the flight from her home in the Rio Grande Valley — rehearsing what to tell state lawmakers about the epidemic of Alzheimer’s disease sweeping through Texas.

The day before, Maestre had spoken to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick alongside a team of biomedical researchers from the Texas Medical Center. The state’s 89th legislative session was in full swing and the researchers’ continued pitch to Patrick, a three-term Republican who controls the Texas Senate, was a big one: Make Texas the nationwide leader on dementia research.

As director of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s Alzheimer’s Disease Resource Center for Minority Agin

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