The Arizona Alzheimer's Disease Core Center (ADCC) capitalizes on its leadership, resources, and collaborative model to advance the study of AD, related disorders, and the aging mind and brain. It provides a springboard as well as support for productive programs and partnerships, and leverages its resources and resulting programs to accelerate the evaluation of prevention therapies, and make the fight against AD a top statewide priority. The Administrative Core provides the ADCC's leadership, relationships, direction, and support; and ensures that the Cores and Research Education Component (REC) are optimally developed, utilized, and working together. It administers a Pilot Project Program for new investigators; launches new programs and partnerships; and works closely with NIA, National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center (NACC), other AD Centers, and numerous other organizations to ensure that state and organizational funds, Ancillary Cores, and other resulting programs are used to fulfill the ADCC's overarching goals. The multi-site Clinical Core and its Ancillary Cores provide and support the productive use of NACC-uploaded data, blood samples and DNA from annually assessed patients with AD dementia, other dementias, and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), as well as cognitively unimpaired older adults in our Brain and Body Donation Program (BBDP), cognitively unimpaired and longitudinally assessed apolipoprotein E4 (APOE4) homozygotes, heterozygotes and non-carriers for the study of preclinical AD, and a growing number of Latinos and Native Americans. The Data Management and Statistics (DMS) Core provides a comprehensive data management program for the acquisition, quality-assurance, organization, appropriate use, and NACC-uploading of ADCC data and the assessment of ADCC performance; biostatistical expertise, mentorship, training, and support; and new computational, mathematical, and statistical data analysis tools to address their goals with improved power. The Neuropathology Core provides extremely rapid autopsies, exceptionally high-quality brain and body tissue, comprehensive neuropathological assessments, diagnoses, and research services, NACC-uploaded UDS data, and numerous tissue distributions from many cognitively impaired and unimpaired brain donors in the ADCC and Ancillary BBDP Cores. The Outreach and Recruitment (OR) Core supports recruitment and retention of Clinical Core and other research participants; provides extensive education and outreach services and interactions with community stakeholders; helps address the needs of understudied and underserved Latinos and Native Americans; develops and tests innovative dementia care programs; and supports development and use of the Alzheimer's Prevention Registry. The new Research Education Component (REC) provides a large and growing number of research mentors and multi-disciplinary research, training, and educational activities to support the development of productive researchers in AD, related disorders, and brain aging research. The proposed funding period will be characterized by dramatic growth and a concerted effort to find and support the approval of effective AD prevention therapies by 2025.
The Arizona Alzheimer's Disease Core Center (ADCC) is the nation's most comprehensive example of statewide collaboration in AD research. It capitalizes on its leadership, shared scientific resources, and collaborative model to advance the study of AD, related disorders, and the aging mind and brain; provides a springboard for new programs and partnerships; advances the study and care of Latinos and Native Americans; improves the standard of care for patients and family caregivers; educates professional and community stakeholders; trains the next generation of researchers in the field; characterizes the earliest brain changes associated with the risk of AD and finds effective prevention therapies as soon as possible; ensures that the fight against AD is a top statewide priority; and dramatically increases the size, productivity, and impact of AD research in Arizona. Its researchers have helped to launch a new era in AD prevention research and are trying to find and support FDA approval of effective prevention therapies within the next ten years.
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