P30AG086403

Vanderbilt Alzheimer's Disease Research Center - Vanderbilt Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center – Overall project summary.

We aim to establish the Vanderbilt Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (VADRC) as a world-class interdisciplinary center in Nashville, Tennessee.

With high regional burden of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and related dementias (ADRD) as well as vascular risk factors, there is a pressing need to understand the complexities underlying the intersection between vascular risk and ADRD.

Vascular risk factors, the majority of which are modifiable, are linked to ADRD risk and highly prevalent in our region, especially within the Black and African American community.

The VADRC’s mission is to characterize how vascular burden intersects with ADRD pathogenesis, manifestation, prevention, and treatment at the cellular, systems biological, and population levels.

This effort will capitalize on the scientific strengths of our campus-wide investigators, expansive and collaborative institutional resources, and foundational work completed over the last several years.

The administrative core will serve as the hub for all local ADRD research activities and coordinate and integrate all center interactions and collaborations.

The outreach, recruitment, and engagement core will build upon existing community partnerships to bring awareness of ADRD and relevant vascular risk factors to the community.

The outreach, recruitment, and engagement core team will recruit participants with a vascular risk profile reflective of our local community into our clinical core alongside a specific focus on outreach in the Black and African American community.

The clinical core will enroll, deeply phenotype, and annually follow 400 participants, capturing clinical, neuropsychological, cardiac imaging, neuroimaging, and biofluid data in collaboration with the biomarker core.

The neuropathology core will obtain post-mortem brains and biofluids from participants, allowing for complete post-mortem characterization of ADRD and vascular pathologies.

Our data management and statistical core will ensure all data collected is properly stored in an integrated informatics infrastructure, is shared with national repositories, and is readily accessible to other investigators via our web-based data sharing platform.

Finally, the VADRC will foster professional development for the next generation of ADRD clinicians, scientists, and leaders, with a particular focus on supporting early career faculty scholars through the research education component.

The VADRC is exceptionally well positioned to become the first center of its kind in Tennessee and serve a growing population suffering from ADRD.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center

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]

Nashville, Tennessee 37203 United States

Single Zip Code

Alzheimer's Disease Research Centers (P30 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) (RFA-AG-24-001)