Cleveland Alzheimers Disease Research Center

PROJECT SUMMARY The Cleveland Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (CADRC) is a collaborative effort of physicians and investigators from Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), Cleveland Clinic Foundation (CCF), MetroHealth System (MHS), University Hospitals (UH), and the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center (LSCVAMC), to foster excellence in research and facilitate discovery as an established National Institute on Aging (NIA) funded Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. The CADRC represents a rich clinical and research community and an estimated 220,000 Ohioans who suffer from Alzheimer's disease (AD) or AD-related dementias (ADRD). The CADRC has 8 Cores and a Research Education Component designed to create the foundation that will enhance the research efforts of the Northeast Ohio AD/ADRD research community, as well as add unique value to the national Alzheimer's Disease Research Centers (ADRC) program and other national and international research programs. The CADRC is focused on participants that will help us understand the pathobiology of clinical and pathological heterogeneity observed in dementia including atypical and amnestic AD, dementia with Lewy bodies, cognitively normal individuals with different levels of genetic risk for AD, and diversity of participant populations (Clinical and Outreach, Recruitment, and Engagement Cores). To support the CADRC goals, the focus will be on deep phenotyping of participants with longitudinal and systematic cognitive, behavioral and motor characterization (Clinical Core), genetic and biofluid biomarker collection and analysis (Biomarker Core), imaging (Neuroimaging Core), and autopsy after death (Neuropathology Core). Results will be shared with the research community in a timely and regular manner to allow other investigators to benefit from the CADRC efforts (Data Management and Statistics Core). In addition, the CADRC will train the next generation of investigators utilizing a rigorous and well-designed Research Education Component, support translation of new laboratory findings through the Translational Therapeutics Core, and support high risk/high gain projects through the developmental program as a part of the Administrative Core. The ultimate goals are to advance the precision medicine approach to dementia diagnosis and treatment, support the development of early stage investigators, assist all stages of investigators with tools for performing human-based research, and better engage underrepresented populations in AD/ADRD research.