Imaging Core

SUMMARY IMAGING CORE In vivo biomarker characterization has become a critical tool in efforts to enhance our understanding of Alzheimer’s and Lewy body disease spectra. Neuroimaging using PET and MRI are central across biological frameworks that have been developed for both disease spectra. The overarching goal of the Imaging Core is to integrate imaging to capture disease specific processes alongside measures of neuronal integrity to improve our understanding of disease risk and progression. Our Core collects a standardized set of neuroimaging sequences relevant for Alzheimer’s and Lewy body disease spectra, in addition to supporting a broad range investigator-initiated imaging research. Imaging data are easily linked with the additional rich deep phenotyping data available on our Clinical Core participants (proteomics, genetics, etc), providing a valuable resource for the investigators. The availability of disease specific biomarkers (amyloid and tau for Alzheimer’s and a-synuclein for Lewy body disease) can also be leveraged to identify novel neuroimaging measures of neuronal injury relevant for AD and LB spectra. This approach is significant given the need to examine the prolonged time course of changes associated with early pathology, establish the impact of co-pathology on neuronal integrity, and ultimately to understand the impact of imaging-derived profiles on medical decision making and response to therapy. Our approach will include PET-MRI scanning to routinely image amyloid and tau PET on newly enrolled Clinical Core participants, as well as repeat scanning 2-3 years after previous scanning sessions on all enrollees (Aim 1). We will conduct a high-resolution 7T MRI sub-study to develop and evaluate midbrain measures reflecting alterations relevant to Lewy body disease (Aim 2). Raw imaging alongside processed data and summary metrics will be provided to the scientific community (Aim 3). Our work in the Imaging Core will also contribute to national coordinated efforts across ADRC sites through data sharing of standardized imaging collected at Stanford through the Standardized Centralized Alzheimer’s & Related Dementias Neuroimaging (SCAN) initiative, as well as with leadership roles in the ADRC Consortium for Clarity in ADRD Research Through Imaging (CLARiTI) project. Finally, we will extend our expertise to both faculty (Aim 4) and trainees (Aim 5) that leverage imaging-related resources from our center and/or are designing novel imaging experiments. To achieve these goals, the Imaging Core will collaborate closely with the Biomarker and Clinical Cores to develop disease profiles that integrate across imaging and biofluid data (biologically defined subgroups), with the Data Management and Statistics Core to monitor progress and share imaging data, and the Research Education Component to provide training opportunities. We will also work with the ORE Core and JEDI committee to ensure milestones related to enhancing diverse perspectives are achieved (Aim 5).