Vanderbilt Alzheimer's Disease Research Center: Clinical Core

PROJECT SUMMARY – CLINICAL CORE The Vanderbilt Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (VADRC) Clinical Core will support local and national Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related dementias (ADRD) research activities to achieve our goal of characterizing how vascular risk and disease intersect with ADRD at the cellular, systems biological, and population levels. The Clinical Core will capitalize on and enhance existing institutional infrastructure to engage, recruit, and retain older adults into ADRD research opportunities. In collaboration with the Outreach, Recruitment, and Engagement Core, Clinical Core recruitment activities will build upon our expansive and successful telephone-based Participant Research Registry and focus on recruiting community-dwelling older adults and memory clinic patients interested in biomarker-focused ADRD research opportunities. A strong emphasis will continue to be outreach and engagement in the local Black/African American community. The Clinical Core will be responsible for enrolling and conducting annual follow-up on a cohort of 400 deeply phenotyped participants ranging from cognitively unimpaired to mild dementia. Capitalizing on well-established protocols and extensive local infrastructure, we will collect detailed clinical, neuropsychological, cardiac imaging, neuroimaging, and biofluid data with a focus on measures of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health. The Clinical Core will continue to engage participants in antemortem brain donation consent using a scalable autopsy protocol pipeline implemented in conjunction with the VADRC Neuropathology Core. The Clinical Core will support research efforts in ADRD by fostering collaborations and sharing data locally, nationally, and internationally through close interactions with the Data Management and Statistical Core. Data and biospecimens will be collected according to current best practices and shared with the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center, the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, the National Centralized Repository for ADRD, and the National Institute on Aging Genetics of AD Storage Site. Together with the Administrative, Biomarker, and Data Management and Statistical Cores, the Clinical Core will enhance local research initiatives by distributing clinical, neuropsychological, cardiac imaging, neuroimaging, genetic, and biospecimen data to qualified investigators and maximizing Clinical Core cohort participation in investigator-initiated and multi-site studies. Finally, the Clinical Core will support the Research Education Component in training the next generation of ADRD clinicians and investigators by providing participants, data, biospecimens, collaboration, and leadership opportunities.