(Overall) The National Alzheimer's Project Act establishes an integrated national plan to overcome Alzheimer's disease (AD); develop treatments to prevent, halt, or reverse the course of AD; improve the early diagnosis of AD; and decrease disparities in AD for ethnic and racial minority populations at higher risk for AD. In this context, AD is intended to encompass AD-related dementias, including dementia with Lewy bodies. In support of the goals and research milestones of the National Alzheimer's Project Act, the mission of the Stanford Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC) is to serve as a shared resource to facilitate and enhance research on AD and the spectrum of cognitive impairment associated with Lewy body (LB) pathology. We follow a strategy of deep phenotyping, believing that critical answers emerge more readily when investigators are able to delve deeply within and across multiple levels of participant data. Healthy adults without cognitive or motor impairment serve both as a comparison (control) population and as a preclinical population in which mechanisms of cognitive aging and clinical transition can be studied. People with Parkinson's disease without cognitive impairment also serve as comparators and as an at-risk transitional population for the development of cognitive impairment linked to LB pathology. ADRC resources will provide investigators with unique opportunities for the parallel study of these two neurodegenerative disorders, enabling insights into pathogenesis, preclinical diagnosis, transitions, resistance and resilience, and therapeutic approaches.
Aims of the Stanford ADRC are to (1) provide an administrative structure that advances the mission of the center; (2) develop and maintain human resources for studies of the AD spectrum and the LB spectrum of cognitive impairment, as well as cognitive aging; (3) make available well-characterized brain tissues, brain-derived biospecimens, and quantitative molecular data derived from high-content imaging of brain tissues; (4) make available participant biospecimens and high-content biospecimen data; (5) provide structural, functional, and molecular neuroimaging biomarkers in support of research on AD-spectrum cognitive impairment, LB-spectrum cognitive impairment, and cognitive aging; (6) provide for the management of Stanford ADRC data, prepare research datasets, provide high-level biostatistical consultation for ADRC investigators, and support research on big data using tools from biostatistics, bioinformatics, and artificial intelligence; (7) with our community partners, provide respectful, culturally sensitive outreach and provide opportunities for education, training, and research participation for healthy adults, people with AD-spectrum and LB-spectrum disorders, and their families. Stanford ADRC outreach and community engagement extends particularly to urban Hispanic/Latino older adults, an important Bay Area population, which is under-represented in AD-related research; and (8) support the training of investigators and future leaders in the field of AD and related dementia.
(Overall) The Stanford Alzheimer's Disease Research Center supports the National Alzheimer's Project Act by serving as a shared resource to promote research on Alzheimer's disease, cognitive impairment linked to Lewy body changes in the brain, and cognitive aging.
