Vanderbilt Alzheimer's Disease Research Center
Funded Grant
Overview
Affiliation
View All
Overview
description
PROJECT SUMMARY – ADMINISTRATIVE CORE - REVISED The Vanderbilt Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (VADRC) Administrative Core will serve as the institutional hub for all local Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related dementias (ADRD) research, helping all Cores achieve the mission of characterizing how vascular risk and disease intersect with ADRD at the cellular, systems biological, and population levels. The Administrative Core will harness institutional, philanthropic, and P30 resources to provide excellent administrative oversight and infrastructure, ensuring that all programmatic objectives are met, and coordinating and integrating activities across all VADRC cores and components. The Administrative Core will establish and facilitate the administrative structure, Center governance, and oversight of Center operations. This work includes coordinating all fiscal, operational, and regulatory functions across the VADRC cores and components, as well as providing Center oversight and enabling optimal utilization of resources through the Executive Committee, Scientific Review Committee, Internal and External Advisory Committees, and Community Advisory Council. The Administrative Core will provide the strategic planning, scientific direction, campus-wide integration, and essential infrastructure necessary to support the Center’s organization. Interdisciplinary engagement and dynamic interactions among VADRC collaborators across Vanderbilt University, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Meharry Medical College, and Belmont University will be encouraged through frequent meetings, innovation sessions, campus-wide events, and grant writing workshops. To advance the goals of the National Alzheimer’s Project Act, the Core will actively support local studies and contribute to collaborative national and international research and resource sharing initiatives (e.g., National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center, National Centralized Repository for ADRD, and National Institute on Aging Genetics of AD Data Storage Site). The Administrative Core, in collaboration with the Data Management and Statistical Core, will enhance our scalable data sharing platform to serve local, national, and international investigator needs. Finally, the Administrative Core will be integral in recruiting new faculty and fostering the professional development of early career clinicians, scientists, and the next generation of leaders in ADRD. Collectively, the VADRC Administrative Core will be instrumental in facilitating integration among all Center investigators, collaborators, component functions, resources, and national and international partners, which will enable the VADRC to fulfill its mission.
VANDERBILT ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE RESEARCH CENTER – OVERALL PROJECT SUMMARY - REVISED 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. 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 outreach in the 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.
