- OVERALL The overall goal of the renewal of the Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC) is to support cutting-edge, innovative research on the pathobiology, early diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related illnesses. This goal will be accomplished by establishing a stimulating, interdisciplinary environment for collaborative research and providing invaluable clinical data, ante-mortem biospecimens, and autopsy brain tissue. Funded by NIA in 2009, the Wisconsin ADRC will support eight well-integrated Cores, including a new Care Research Core and Research Education Component (REC) that will support timely, innovative research, which will: 1) characterize preclinical biomarkers of AD and their role in predicting transition from preclinical to clinical stages of the disease; 2) investigate the neurobiology of AD; 3) identify novel vascular and genetic risk factors, linking them to the disease pathology and clinical phenotype; 4) incorporate contemporary biochemical and molecular techniques into clinical-pathologic cohort studies, including omics and next generation genetic sequencing; and 5) participate and facilitate the missions of other federal, state and local agency-supported aging and dementia research programs. The overall goals of the Center will be accomplished through coordinated activities of its eight Cores and the REC. The Administrative Core will provide scientific leadership to the ADRC as a whole. The Clinical Core will perform standardized evaluations and collect UDS and additional data on all research participants. It will work closely with the Outreach, Recruitment and Engagement (ORE) Core and the Inclusion of Underrepresented Groups (URG) Core to enhance enrollment of underrepresented minorities. The Data Management and Statistical (DMS) Core will continue to meet all data management, informatics, and statistical needs and support all the PC- and web-based services and processes. The Neuropathology Core will continue to provide neuropathologic diagnoses and process, store, and distribute antemortem biospecimens and postmortem brain tissue to support novel research in AD. The ORE Core will provide a broad-range of educational and outreach programs about AD and the Wisconsin ADRC missions to recruit research volunteers, especially those from URGs into the Clinical Core and other NIA-funded initiatives, such as ADCS, ADNI, NCRAD and GWAS studies. The URG Core will work closely with the ORE and Clinical Cores to enhance recruitment and retention of URG participants into the ADRC. The new Biomarker Core will support and provide access to resources in preclinical neuroimaging and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers of AD. The REC will coordinate closely with the Clinical, ORE, URG, Neuropathology and DMS Cores to provide state-of-the-art, competency-based training to postdoctoral fellows and early-stage faculty in all aspects of aging & dementia research. The new Care Research Core will provide novel expertise and resources to conduct innovative studies that will enhance patient care and change clinical practice.
- OVERALL The overarching scientific theme of the Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research center (ADRC) is preclinical biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and their role in predicting transition from preclincial to clincial stages of the disease. There is convincing evidence that AD pathology starts several decades before the onset of symptoms, and discovery of biomarkers that represent asymptomatic stages of the disease will lead to early diagnosis and effective treatments and prevention strategies for the disease. Identifying asymptomatic at risk individuals during preclinical stages of AD will allow initiation of therapies that will either slow or, preferably stop the progression of the disease. Research conducted at the Wisconsin ADRC has made seminal contributions to the field of AD research and has the potential to eventually find a cure for AD. This will have a great impact on patients and their families and will reduce the enormous societal costs associated with this devastating illness.
