The Administrative Core will be directed by Dr. McKee and the Administrative offices will be located at the Boston University Alzheimer's Disease Center (BUADC) and CTE Center at Boston University School of Medicine. The leadership, administrative management and coordination of the proposed activities will be based on the prior experience and success of 2 previous harmonized UO1s (McKee, PI, Dams-O'Connor, PI). This U54 application includes 3 well-integrated projects, 3 cores and utilizes 8 brain banks across BUSM and ISMMS. Each project and core complements the others so that a synergistic relationship is achieved with a common focus on the major goals of the program: to comprehensively characterize the neuropathological substrate of neurodegeneration after TBI and RHI, to describe the associations between neuropathological burden and ante mortem clinical symptoms, to elucidate the contribution of key individual (gender, age at time of injury, time since injury, genotype, cardiovascular health and cognitive reserve) and injury characteristics (severity, frequency) to describe associations between neuropathological burden and clinical symptoms and to determine the prevalence of TBI-related parkinsonism, dementia and CTE in 8 participating brain banks. This U54 will develop the largest brain donor cohort with well-characterized histories of RHI and TBI across the severity spectrum and the tissue collected will be used for broad sharing through the UNITE (VA-BU-CLF) brain bank and the NIH biobank at ISMMS. The U54 will also develop a digital library of pathology slides that will be hosted and shared by FITBIR. The administrative core will provide overall leadership and organization to ensure regular, coordinated scientific interaction, harmonized data acquisition, and harmonized clinical and neuropathological assessment across sites. The administrative core will also manage all communication, reporting, dispute resolution, use of resources and meeting milestones. To accomplish these goals, the following components will be assembled: a Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) consisting of 5 leading independent scientific experts in neurology, neuropathology, TBI, RHI, AD, ADRD, and CTE; an Executive Committee (EC), the central decision-making and policy development group for the proposal; a Scientific Working Group (SWG) to ensure scientific advancement and productivity through sharing of scientific results and discussion; a Publications Committee; a Tissue Request Oversight committee and a Fiscal Management Committee. The Administrative Core will ensure that all U54 milestones and metrics for each project and core are met. Given the well-established, productive working relationships between the PI, project and core leaders and investigators at BUSM and ISMSS and their proven track record of success, we are confident that the Administrative Core can effectively support the 3 inter-linking cores and projects to fully achieve the proposed goals and milestones of this U54.
