This grant application requests five years of renewed support for the Arizona Alzheimer's Disease Core Center (ADCC). The ADCC is intended to optimize the development and use of its Cores, advance the scientific understanding, unusually early detection, and tracking of AD, and the accelerated evaluation of AD modifying and prevention therapies, promote additional organizational investments, and provide a model of statewide collaboration in AD research. The Administrative Core provides the leadership and support needed to optimize the development, interactions, and use of its Cores. It works closely with researchers inside and outside Arizona, the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center (NACC), and other AD Centers to promote the development and progress of AD-related studies and collaborations. It administers a program for the statewide solicitation, competitive review, and support of pilot studies. It helps solve the challenges and fulfill the opportunities associated with the ADCC's statewide collaborative model and ensures the ADCC's accountability to the NIA. The Clinical Core maintains a large pool of clinically well characterized and annually assessed research subjects for the scientific study of AD and aging, including patients with AD, other dementias, and mild cognitive impairment (MCI); normal controls, most of whom are enrolled in a brain donation program, and a growing number of Latino and Native American research subjects. This Core ensures the comparability and the productive and appropriate use of subjects, DNA, blood samples, and data from its six clinical sites. It also promotes the productive and appropriate scientific use of subjects from its independently supported APOE, Brain and Body Donation, and Clinical Therapeutics Registry Programs. The Data Management and Statistics Core maintains the ADCC's database, helps ensure the quality of data and the protection of subject confidentiality, and provides statistical services and image-analysis resources in a manner that best serves the needs of the statewide ADCC. It works closely with researchers, NACC, and other AD Centers, sharing data in the most productive, timely, and appropriate way. The Neuropathology Core provides neuropathological diagnoses and extremely high-quality brain and body tissues from expired Clinical Core and ancillary program subjects to support research studies in Arizona and around the world, helping to address a critical need in the AD research community. The Education and Information Core provides training, innovative educational and outreach programs, and strategic partnerships to promote the development of AD-related researchers, address needs of professional and family caregivers, provide information about the ADCC, address unmet needs of Arizona's Native American and rapidly growing Latino communities, and assist in the Clinical Core enrollment and study of these understudied groups.
The Arizona Alzheimer's Disease Center (ADC) is the National Institute on Aging's (NIA's) first statewide AD Center; the only one in Southwestern United States; and a leading example of statewide collaboration in biomedical research. It capitalizes on shared scientific resources and complementary strengths from different disciplines and institutions to advance the scientific understanding; unusually early detection and tracking of AD; help address the unmet needs of Native American and Latino communities; and find demonstrably effective treatments to prevent AD symptoms as soon as possible.
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