The Oregon Alzheimer's Disease Center's (OADC) goal is to facilitate and advance research on Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related topics, concentrating our efforts to better define normal aging, the transitions to mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early dementia. This will be achieved by maintaining five core facilities in association with expert core personnel to support current research strengths and to be responsive to new knowledge and discoveries in the field. The OADC is oordinated to be an efficient unit, working in concert with the research community to facilitate investigation in several major thematic areas such as studies of incipient dementia in the very elderly, the genetics of healthy brain aging, biomarkers of underlying disease, and alternative treatment regimens. The Clinical Core provides well characterized, longitudinally followed research subjects of several kinds: 1) early AD and related dementias; 2) non-cognitively impaired or MCI elderly at high risk for developing dementia, emphasizing the oldest old; and 3) subjects reflecting social and racial diversity (African American, Native American, and isolated rural populations). The Neuropathology Core is notably organized to maximize standardized diagnosis, availability of normative tissue, and research collaboration through the new Pacific Northwest Dementia and Aging (PANDA) Neuropathology Group, a cooperative effort of the OADC and University of Washington ADC Neuropathology Cores. The Genetics Core responds to the needs of this research with sophisticated characterization of research subjects and tissues by family history and genotype. The Genetics Core uniquely informs this research by creating a genomic resource for healthy brain aging. The Data Management and Statistics Core links all units with an efficient relational database creating a seamless pathway to ongoing and future collaborations with the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center and other ADCs. The Data Core also provides important assistance and advice in design and statistical analysis to investigators. New information and knowledge of the field is disseminated through the Education and Information Transfer Core. This core uses a variety of educational forums ranging from small seminars to web-based information dissemination. The core's professional education programs emphasize empowering primary care providers to meet the challenge of insuring optimal brain aging for our senior population.
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