Michigan Alzheimer's Disease Core Center

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OVERALL Abstract The Michigan Alzheimer’s Disease Core Center (Michigan ADCC) aims to foster and enhance innovative research in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related dementias with a long term goal of developing targeted therapies for these challenging disorders. This center will build on the existing deep infrastructure and research strengths in dementia and aging research at the University of Michigan (UM). The Michigan ADCC will emphasize research that seeks to identify, understand, and modulate the non-ß-amyloid factors that contribute to brain dysfunction and neurodegeneration in AD and other dementias. The rationale for this focus is that while recent advances have defined a central role for ß-amyloid in AD, many potentially modifiable factors beyond ß-amyloid contribute to brain dysfunction and degeneration yet remain poorly understood. The Michigan ADCC will leverage established strengths in brain imaging, dementia risk identification and disclosure, mechanistic studies of neurodegenerative proteinopathies, and predictive Big Data analytics to achieve this objective. A truly regional center, the Michigan ADCC will promote research across the UM campus, throughout the state of Michigan via collaborations with our partner universities Michigan State University and Wayne State University, and across the nation through collaborations with other NIA-sponsored AD Centers (ADCs) and programs. The Michigan ADCC has four goals: 1) Foster, catalyze and perform research of the highest potential impact in AD and related neurodegenerative disorders; 2) Promote regional efforts to understand, diagnose and treat AD and related dementias through collaborative scientific and outreach efforts; 3) Provide a wide range of training and research opportunities in the dementias for health care professionals, scientists, and students through innovative educational and mentoring efforts; and 4) Collaborate with other ADCs, the NACC, and other multi-center research efforts to move the field closer to effective therapies for this group of devastating diseases. Success in achieving these goals will be ensured through the fully integrated activities of six cores (Administrative; Clinical; Data Management and Statistical; Neuropathology; Outreach and Recruitment; and Research Education Component ), and through close collaboration with related programs including the UM Protein Folding Diseases Initiative, Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center, Udall Center of Excellence for Parkinson’s Disease Research, and Healthier Black Elders Center of the Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research. These and other collaborations have led to newly developed emphases on the detection of early cognitive decline in an underserved population (African Americans in Detroit) and on novel potential biomarkers of disease. The Center’s extensive preliminary organization and teams of experts ensure that, upon receiving NIA designation, the Michigan ADCC will have an immediate impact, both regionally and nationally, in enhancing research to better understand and treat AD and related forms of dementia.