NEUROPATHOLOGY CORE

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The Neuropathology Core is a cental component of the JHMI ADRC. The staff of the Neuropathology Core will arrange and conduct autopsies, perform neuropathological evaluations of human subjects and assist in the assessment of genetically engineered animal models relevant to AD. To support research that requires postmortem tissue from humans (both at JHMI and at collaborating institutions) this core D operates a Brain Resource Center (BRC), a repository of fixed and frozen autopsy tissues. In addition, the faculty play a critical role in training basic scientists and physicians in the pathology of aging and neurodegenerative disease, consults with outside pathologists on cases of dementia, and does genotyping relevant to Alzheimers Disease (AD). Based on past experience, we anticipate that large numbers of controls, cases with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and patients with AD will come to autopsy in the next funding cycle. In addition, in the next funding cycle, autopsy studies of patients at high risk for vascular dementia will be initiated, through access to a unique cohort of individuals, some of whom have had Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG). In the next funding cycle, tissues from subjects will be made availale for research, not only within the JHMI ADRC, but to AD investigators at collaborating institutions. This Core will also support morphological studies of transgenic and gene targeted mice engineered to study the pathogenesis and therapeutic strategies for AD. These analyses require detailed morphological studies and stereology, and this Core will provide an histology laboratory and stereology Unit for this purpose. Through these multiple activities, this Core will act to coordinate and facilitate the neuropathological evaluations of both clinical and experimental tissues relevant to AD, thereby greatly enhancing the diagnostic and research capabilities of investigators associated with the ADRC.