P30AG072958

Duke/UNC Alzheimer's Disease Research Center - Abstract - Overall

Before it kills, Alzheimer's Disease (AD) exacts a devastating toll on patients, families, caregivers, and communities. Moreover, even in 2020, there is still no prevention or cure for AD. To meet this challenge, the new Duke/University of North Carolina ADRC is poised to transform AD-related research and services across the Research Triangle and Eastern North Carolina.

The new Duke/University of North Carolina Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (Duke/UNC ADRC)'s theme is identifying age-related changes across the lifespan that mediate the development, progression, and experience of Alzheimer's Disease (AD). In support of this theme, the Duke/UNC ADRC clinical cohort design and biomarker collection equip investigators with data and resources to discover new opportunities to intervene in the years before AD symptoms manifest.

A related center goal is to identify how factors that arise in early and mid-life contribute to racial and urban/rural disparities in dementia. The center plans to provide infrastructure and resources aligned with the following specific aims:

1) Stimulate and support research on AD and Alzheimer's Disease-related dementias (AD+ADRD) for investigators from many fields by providing access to well-characterized subjects, curated data and biospecimens from diverse individuals across a wide age-spectrum with and without dementia, with emphasis on pre-clinical and early disease.
2) Attract and prepare diverse, creative, well-trained investigators to conduct high caliber research on AD+ADRD.
3) Improve lives impacted by age-related cognitive decline and increase the inclusiveness of this research.

The center's cores (clinical, biomarker, neuropathology, data management and statistics (DMS), outreach, recruitment, and engagement (ORE), administrative) and research education component (REC) work collectively to pursue these aims, aided by our team's decades of dementia outreach across North Carolina, strong existing ties to minority and rural communities, and institutional resources and experts in disparities research.

The center's clinical, biomarker, and neuropathology cores, in conjunction with the ORE core, will support the collection of images, biospecimens, and fluids from over 500 well-characterized participants across a broad age range. The DMS core will support data curation and analysis by providing integrated data management and statistical/bioinformatics collaborative expertise.

The REC will develop a robust and diverse pipeline of future leaders in AD+ADRD research through an innovative combination of widely disseminated curricular elements and more personalized mentoring experiences. The REC's educational platforms extend to three additional universities in our catchment area, including two majority minority institutions.

The ADRC's cores and the REC, supported by the administrative core, will work in a coordinated manner to generate and store data and resources from people with and without dementia or AD risk, share data and expertise as widely as possible, and ultimately contribute back to the AD community through dissemination of results, education, and health services.

Duke University

TO ENCOURAGE BIOMEDICAL, SOCIAL, AND BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH AND RESEARCH TRAINING DIRECTED TOWARD GREATER UNDERSTANDING OF THE AGING PROCESS AND THE DISEASES, SPECIAL PROBLEMS, AND NEEDS OF PEOPLE AS THEY AGE. THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON AGING HAS ESTABLISHED PROGRAMS TO PURSUE THESE GOALS. THE DIVISION OF AGING BIOLOGY EMPHASIZES UNDERSTANDING THE BASIC BIOLOGICAL PROCESSES OF AGING. THE DIVISION OF GERIATRICS AND CLINICAL GERONTOLOGY SUPPORTS RESEARCH TO IMPROVE THE ABILITIES OF HEALTH CARE PRACTITIONERS TO RESPOND TO THE DISEASES AND OTHER CLINICAL PROBLEMS OF OLDER PEOPLE. THE DIVISION OF BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL RESEARCH SUPPORTS RESEARCH THAT WILL LEAD TO GREATER UNDERSTANDING OF THE SOCIAL, CULTURAL, ECONOMIC AND PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS THAT AFFECT BOTH THE PROCESS OF GROWING OLD AND THE PLACE OF OLDER PEOPLE IN SOCIETY. THE DIVISION OF NEUROSCIENCE FOSTERS RESEARCH CONCERNED WITH THE AGE-RELATED CHANGES IN THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AS WELL AS THE RELATED SENSORY, PERCEPTUAL, AND COGNITIVE PROCESSES ASSOCIATED WITH AGING AND HAS A SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE. SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION RESEARCH (SBIR) PROGRAM: TO EXPAND AND IMPROVE THE SBIR PROGRAM, TO INCREASE PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIALIZATION OF INNOVATIONS DERIVED FROM FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, TO INCREASE SMALL BUSINESS PARTICIPATION IN FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, AND TO FOSTER AND ENCOURAGE PARTICIPATION OF SOCIALLY AND ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND WOMEN-OWNED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS IN TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION. SMALL BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER (STTR) PROGRAM: TO STIMULATE AND FOSTER SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION THROUGH COOPERATIVE RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT CARRIED OUT BETWEEN SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS, TO FOSTER TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER BETWEEN SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS, TO INCREASE PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIALIZATION OF INNOVATIONS DERIVED FROM FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, AND TO FOSTER AND ENCOURAGE PARTICIPATION OF SOCIALLY AND ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND WOMEN-OWNED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS IN TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION.

93.866 - Aging Research

National Institute on Aging (NIA) [HHS - NIH]

Durham, North Carolina 27705 United States

Single Zip Code

Alzheimers Disease Research Centers (P30 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) (RFA-AG-21-019)

Amendment Since initial award the total obligations have increased 374% from $3,128,004 to $14,812,559.