- CLINICAL CORE (CORE B) The primary objective of the Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center's (ADRC) Clinical Core is to provide investigators access to well-characterized, diverse patient and control populations and high-quality, standardized clinical, cognitive, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), serum/plasma, DNA, and neuroimaging data to facilitate translational Alzheimer's disease (AD) research in preclinical diagnosis and early intervention. To that end, the Core conducts comprehensive clinical evaluations in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and mild dementia due to AD, cognitively normal older controls (OCN, >65 years), and middle-aged adults (IMPACT cohort, 45-65 years) with varying levels of dementia risk based on family history. The Clinical Core team works closely with all Cores to facilitate the Center's mission by participating in outreach and recruitment activities to diverse communities; conducting standardized clinical and cognitive assessments of Core participants; gathering ancillary aging-related cognitive and clinical data, including a detailed vascular risk assessment; collecting high- quality blood, CSF, and DNA biospecimens; coordinating biospecimen collection with neuroimaging; completing standardized data reporting in a timely manner; conducting skin biopsies for acquisition of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines; consenting Core participants for brain autopsy; facilitating cognitive testing and CSF collection within investigator-initiated studies; and ensuring timely availability of participants, data, and biospecimens to researchers locally and beyond. In the next grant cycle, the Core will accomplish the following aims:
Aim 1 : Continue to recruit and retain cognitively unimpaired adults (IMPACT and OCN) and patients with MCI for detailed annual (MCI, OCN) or biennial (IMPACT) clinical assessments (including standardized Uniform Data Set [UDS] data and blood samples) and for biennial (MRI, CSF) and baseline (PET in subset) biomarker assessments to support translational research in preclinical dementia.
Aim 2 : Continue to recruit and retain patients with mild dementia due to AD for detailed annual clinical and blood biomarker assessments (including standardized UDS data) and optional additional baseline biomarker assessments (MRI, CSF, PET).
Aim 3 : Continue to integrate culturally-tailored outreach, education, and clinical services to diverse communities to raise awareness of brain health and encourage long-term research engagement (including clinical and biomarker assessments) and advocacy in underrepresented minority communities.
Aim 4 : Continue to obtain consents for brain donation to support clinical-pathologic research and collect CSF, blood, DNA, and iPSCs for translational research on preclinical markers of MCI and AD dementia.
Aim 5 : Continue to provide infrastructure, resources, and services to facilitate collaborative research in normal cognitive aging, preclinical dementia, and dementia due to AD and expedite sharing of data and resources with the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center, National Cell Repository for Alzheimer's Disease, and other AD Centers and investigators.
