Organization and architecture of a consortium for cellular resolution analysis of Alzheimer's disease and comorbid dementias.

ABSTRACT (ADMIN CORE) The Seattle Alzheimer’s Disease Brain Cell Atlas (SEA-AD) renewal proposal “A multimodal brain cell atlas and community resource of Alzheimer’s disease and comorbid dementias” aims to expand on its initial phase to build a cellular and molecular atlas of AD and comorbid dementias (AD/ADRD) and is closely linked to the NIH BRAIN Initiative Cell Atlas Network (BICAN) neurotypical brain atlases. SEA-AD takes a highly collaborative multisite approach, with experimental work centered at the Allen Institute and the University of Washington, but involving ten member Institutes to bring together needed expertise in AD/ADRD donor recruitment and brain preparation, quantitative neuropathology, single cell and spatial genomics, data analysis and online resource creation. The Administrative Core will build on the existing programmatic infrastructure established in the first phase of SEA-AD to coordinate, manage and support the three Research Projects, Data Core, and cross-site Working Groups. Effectively managing goals across sites requires strong administrative leadership and organizational support. The Administrative Core will provide the structure, leadership and operational management of SEA-AD, including project management, strategic planning, progress reporting, fiscal management, and support for collaboration and communication. A Steering Committee with membership across key Institutes and Projects will provide overall scientific guidance and leadership, with an external Scientific Advisory Board to garner input from the AD research community. The Administrative Core will also provide necessary management and support of Project Teams for each Project and Core, which oversee the collaborative, standardized, and on-time data generation, data analysis, and the public data sharing and online resource creation processes. It will provide similar support for essential cross-Consortium working groups to ensure standardization across tissue sites, appropriate cohort selection, tight integration across data generated from all Projects and Cores, and harmonization and joint data analysis between SEA-AD data and other single cell genomics datasets/projects in the AD community. Project management best practices, including milestone setting, progress reporting and tracking, collaborative software programs, and a responsibility matrix will be applied to SEA-AD to ensure achievement of performance objectives and milestones, optimized communication, and resource utilization and prioritization. Further, the Administrative Core will support the implementation of standard operating procedures and quality control standards for data generation, data processing, and analysis. Finally, the Administrative Core will implement and maintain fiscal, legal and subcontractor management processes, and manage publication and authorship decisions and conflict resolution. Overall, the Administrative core will provide the leadership and support to ensure that the project will achieve its goal to create a catalytic, high impact community data resource to accelerate progress across the AD and AD/ADRD research communities.