The Goizueta Alzheimer's Disease Research Center

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT: CLINICAL CORE The primary goals of the Clinical Core are to support and enhance efforts of the Goizueta Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (GADRC) at Emory to advance cutting-edge research to identify mechanisms and biomarkers of risk and protection, predictors of cognitive decline with emphasis on populations at greatest risk, and factors that underlie heterogeneity in dementing illnesses. The Clinical Core plays a central role in the GADRC by supporting the overall theme of explaining pathological and clinical heterogeneity of AD and related disorders (ADRD) to enable precision in early identification, intervention, and prevention. To accomplish these goals, the Clinical Core has well-defined processes to recruit, track, characterize, and retain a cohort of longitudinal research participants and to effectively coordinate activities and share data with other Cores of the GADRC and external partners. In the current funding period, the Clinical Core, in collaboration with the ORE Core, accomplished its goals of implementing innovative programming and educational approaches to promote successful engagement of the African American community, including enrollment of equal numbers of Black and White participants. The Clinical Core also expanded enrollment of diverse underlying pathophysiologies including vascular cognitive impairment, Lewy Body Disease, and Frontotemporal dementia. Coordinated efforts with the Neuropathology, Biomarker, Imaging, and DMS Cores led to the harmonization of data and biospecimen collection, and supported advances in local, national, and international research using mass spectrometry-based proteomics. Aims for this renewal are to 1) Establish and maintain a diverse cohort of well- characterized research participants to support priorities in current AD/ADRD research, with a continued emphasis on African Americans and the planned expansion to participants of Asian ancestry; 2) Collect high- quality data and biospecimens across a diverse population to support new discoveries in aging, resilience, and heterogeneity of AD and ADRD; and 3) Support and facilitate the dissemination of best practices using new diagnostic tests and emerging therapeutics, including spearheading the evaluation of digital cognitive assessments, voice recording, and retinal imaging along with plasma biomarkers. Achieving these Specific Aims will enable the Clinical Core to contribute to advances to unravel the heterogeneity of dementing diseases, understand the impact of diverse influences, including ancestry and social determinants of health, and translate these advances to deliver more precise diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of AD/ADRD.