Mayo Alzheimer's Disease Research Center

PROJECT SUMMARY - OVERALL The Mayo Clinic Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) has been operating at the Mayo Clinic Rochester (MCR) and Mayo Clinic Florida (MCF) since 1990. The theme of the current cycle of the ADRC is Multiple Etiology Dementias. We recruit and follow participants on the Alzheimer’s disease (AD), frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), Lewy body disorders (LBD) and vascular cognitive impairment dementia (VCID) spectra to study the roles of multiple pathologic processes functioning to impact cognition in aging. We will be evaluating the social and structural determinants of health in African American/Black and Hispanic/Latino communities at MCF and rural residents at MCR to determine the manner in which the multiple pathologic processes evolve in these communities. Our team has secured several grants in AD, FTLD, LBD and VCID to allow us to leverage the resources of the ADRC against these projects to advance our knowledge. New cores in this ADRC application include the Genomics Core that will study the role of multi-omic aspects of various neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular disease (CVD) disorders, and a Digital Innovation Core that will combine aspects of artificial intelligence neuroimaging, gait, speech/language and remote cognitive assessments to help diagnose and evaluate the longitudinal outcome of neurodegenerative and CVD disorders. The Biomarker Core will evaluate several plasma assays and platforms to determine the utility of these plasma markers in predicting the underlying pathologies, assisting in the biological aspects of the diagnosis and following treatments of these disorders. The Neuroimaging Core will continue to unify imaging protocols across modalities between MCR and MCF as well as move the field forward with defacing MRI and PET images to maximize research participant privacy. Our Neuropathology Core has been at the forefront of developing neuropathology criteria and serves the vital function of confirming the multiple etiological nature of most degenerative/CVD conditions. The Data Management and Statistical Core will continue to lead the field in electronic data capture for our Center enabling the robust sharing of data. The Research Education Component has been successful at training the next generation of investigators from underserved populations and will expand these efforts. The Mayo Clinic ADRC will continue to be a leader in sharing images, data and biospecimens with the other ADRC’s and the broader research community. The unique focus of the Mayo Clinic ADRC involving the combinations of most of the major neurodegenerative and CVD disorders will advance the field for refining diagnoses leading to the development of therapies.