The overall goal of the proposed renewal of the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Core Center (Rush ADCC) is to continue to support the performance of cutting edge and innovative research on the etiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of MCI, AD, and other common dementias, by providing researchers with a stimulating multi-disciplinary environment, and unique and highly valued clinical and post-mortem data, and ante- and post-mortem biologic specimens. The Rush ADCC has been in continuous operation since 1991. It has six Cores carefully designed to support a variety of timely and important areas of research including studies: 1) of the transition from normal aging to MCI and to the earliest stages of dementia with substantial participation by racial and ethnic minorities, 2) of the neurobiology of normal aging, MCI, AD, and mixed dementias, 3) linking risk factors to normal aging, incident MCI and incident AD, and to post-mortem indices of AD and other common coexisting pathologies, 4) that incorporate contemporary biochemical and molecular techniques into clinical-pathologic cohort studies, including genomics, epigenomics, proteomics, metabolomic, and next generation sequencing, and 5) that facilitate the overall goals and missions of other Federal, State, and Local agency supported aging and AD research programs. The Administrative Core will provide scientific leadership to the ADCC as a whole. The Clinical Core will recruit and collect UDS and additional data on African Americans without dementia and work to obtain brain autopsy. The Religious Orders Study Core, begun in 1993, will recruit and follow older members of Catholic religious communities who have agreed to annual evaluation and brain donation at death. The Neuropathology Core will process, store, evaluate and distribute ante- and post-mortem biospecimens from subjects evaluated by the Clinical and Religious Orders Study Cores. The Education and Information Transfer Core will provide a wide range of educational programs to support outreach and recruitment of racial and ethnic minorities into the Clinical and Religious Orders Study Cores, and other NIA funded initiatives such as ADCS, ADNI, and the NIA LOAD Family Study. The Data Management and Biostatistics Core, begun in 1995, will continue to support all other Cores with PC- and web-based services and processes, and provide statistical support to users of Rush ADCC resources.
The rich resources generated by the Rush ADCC will provide the research community with unparalleled opportunities to conduct studies that are essential to the development of disease modifying therapies, behavioral, and other therapeutic interventions for normal aging, MCI, and dementia, all of which are large and growing public health challenges.
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