Stanford Alzheimer's Disease Research Center

SUMMARY OVERALL The National Alzheimer's Project Act (NAPA) provides an integrated national plan to overcome Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and AD related dementias (AD/ADRD). Established in 2015, the Farrukh–Jamal Stanford Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) supports NAPA goals. Its thematic focus is the study of the two most common neurodegenerative disorders: AD and Lewy body disease (LBD). ADRC participants are classified by clinical syndrome and by disease-defining biomarkers. The AD clinical spectrum encompasses preclinical AD, mild cognitive impairment due to AD, and AD dementia. The LBD clinical spectrum includes Parkinson’s disease without cognitive impairment, Parkinson’s disease with mild cognitive impairment, Parkinson’s disease with dementia, and dementia with Lewy bodies. AD is defined biologically by amyloid-β and tau pathology and biomarkers, and LBD can be biologically defined as neuronal α-synuclein disease. Having a valid α-synuclein biomarker enables preclinical LBD (i.e., LBD without motor or cognitive impairment) to be included in the LBD spectrum. The Stanford ADRC also enrolls and characterizes healthy older adults as a comparison cohort for AD and LBD and as an at-risk, preclinical cohort in which cognitive aging and phenotypic transitions can be studied, and in which factors related to cognitive resilience and disease resistance can be examined. Critical answers emerge more readily when investigators can delve deeply within and across multiple levels of participant data. The Stanford ADRC will continue to employ a strategy of deep phenotyping, in which we collect multiple types of clinical, imaging, and biological data from participants followed over time. Most participants consent to brain donation. Over the next five years, the Stanford ADRC will serve as a shared resource in support of NAPA goals through the following aims: 1) Provide an administrative structure to advance the theme and mission of the Stanford ADRC, including the selection and support of developmental projects. 2) Develop and maintain human resources for studies of AD, LBD, and cognitive aging. 3) Provide pathological diagnoses and make available well-characterized postmortem brain tissues, stem cell lines, and early cortical organoids. 4) Make available biospecimens and multiplex data derived from biospecimen analyses. 5) Obtain PET and MRI quantitative brain imaging that captures disease specific processes and measures of neuronal integrity. 6) Manage Stanford ADRC data, prepare research datasets, offer high-level biostatistical consultation for AD/ADRD investigators, and support innovative 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 and LBD, and their families. 8) Support the training of investigators and future leaders in the field of AD/ADRD.