This application proposes continuation of the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Core Center (ADCC) that was originally funded in July, 1991. The Center initially had four cores: Administrative, Clinical, Neuropathology and Education and Information Transfer. Two additional cores were subsequently added through competitive supplements: the Religious Orders Study Core in July, 1993 and the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Core in July, 1995. The central goal of the ADCC continues to be providing core resources for Alzheimer's disease research of high scientific quality. Because the ADCC itself is not intended to conduct hypothesis driven research directly, there is strong emphasis on development of externally funded studies, especially efforts that are of sufficient merit to achieve NIH funding. Selection of the best pilot projects is essential to achieving this goal. Pilot applications are accepted not only from Rush faculty but from all Chicago-area Alzheimer's disease investigators and are evaluated through a structured, competitive process that emphasizes identification of pilot projects with the greatest potential for leading to new full-scale studies. Three unusual circumstances shape the Rush ADCC and the approach to its overall goal: (a) There is strong emphasis on large-scale longitudinal data collection and analysis that arises from an understanding of the importance of these approaches to answering crucial questions about Alzheimer's disease and from the presence at Rush of investigators familiar with the necessary techniques. (b)The presence at Rush of a State-of-Illinois-funded program that provides services for Alzheimer's disease patients and their families and that conducts extensive educational efforts has permitted the ADCC to develop an unusually large patient base and to focus on information transfer efforts for minority groups. (c) The opportunity, through the Religious Orders Study Core, for obtaining tissue from persons who have been carefully characterized clinically by sequential annual evaluations provides especially strong opportunities for precise clinical pathological correlations and for investigating the spectrum between Alzheimer's disease and normal cognition.
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