The Goizueta Alzheimer's Disease Research Center

SUMMARY/ABSTRACT: IMAGING CORE The Imaging Core of Emory Goizueta Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (GADRC) supports national and local Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and related dementias (ADRD) studies involving imaging and is well positioned to support the central theme of GADRC towards better understanding of mixed etiology dementia. PET and MR imaging have greatly contributed to the diagnosis and understanding of AD by enabling in vivo evaluation of amyloid, tau and neurodegeneration stages. However, there are still unmet needs to fully understand the heterogeneity of AD both in terms of comorbidities (or mixed etiology) and longitudinal trajectories. The proposed Imaging Core will advance the goals of GADRC by pursuing four Specific Aims: 1) acquire and process standard MR and PET image to support national and local research projects; 2) provide an expanding portfolio of advanced image acquisition and analysis methods to support the study of AD heterogeneity and mixed-etiology causes to cognitive impairment in AD/ADRD; 3) process and harmonize GADRC-linked imaging datasets to support precision medicine research and translation to clinics; 4) train the next generation of researchers and integrate with other GADRC Cores. These Specific Aims are synergistically constructed to provide standardized imaging, test advanced imaging biomarkers with great potentials to advance AD/ADRD, enable artificial intelligence research for precision medicine and translation to clinics, and provide an environment with a wealth of data and imaging expertise for training the next generation of diverse researchers. Achieving these aims will contribute to advancing the overall goals of the GADRC to unravel the heterogeneity of dementing diseases.