David Geldmacher
University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL·Neuroscience
Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) are common in the Deep South, where some risk factors are especially widespread and Black or African American (B/AA) residents bear a heavy burden. To study who develops dementia, and why, researchers need well-described volunteers followed over many years, along with their biological samples and brain scans.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Medicine & Clinical Research
Public Health & Epidemiology
- Topics
Alzheimer's disease
dementia
mild cognitive impairment
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2029
What they work on
- Enroll and follow about 525 community volunteers each year, cognitively unimpaired, with mild cognitive impairment or with mild dementia, at least 40% Black or African American, using standard national tests plus social determinants of health, body composition and actigraphy measures.
- Collect blood, cerebrospinal fluid and urine for genotyping and banking, and refer participants for MRI, amyloid-PET and tau-PET brain imaging so researchers can link biology to cognitive change.
- Assign clinical diagnoses through a multidisciplinary consensus panel, and separately classify amyloid, tau and neurodegeneration (ATN) biomarker status in a panel blinded to clinical data.
More about the research
This grant funds the Clinical Core of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC), which recruits and assesses those volunteers.
Why it matters
Providing well-characterized participants, biological samples, genetic data and long-term clinical records may help researchers understand dementia risk factors common in the Deep South. Heavy enrollment of Black or African American participants could improve understanding of racial disparities in Alzheimer's disease. Shared national data could also aid studies of early detection and the course of cognitive decline.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jonathan McConathy
University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL·Neuroscience
Acquire amyloid-PET and tau-PET scans, which detect hallmark Alzheimer's protein deposits, and MRI scans from UAB Alzheimer's Disease Research Center participants using a simultaneous PET/MRI system.
Joseph Quinn
Oregon Health & Science University, OR·Neuroscience
Collect and provide DNA, plasma, peripheral blood mononuclear cells and cerebrospinal fluid from healthy controls, people with mild cognitive impairment and people with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.
Rhoda Au
Boston University, MA·Public Health & Epidemiology
Collect digital cognitive metrics (dCog) from a digital recorder, digital pen and smartphone apps in the BU ADRC cohort, and compare people who are positive versus negative for the amyloid-tau-neurodegeneration (A/T/N) signature.
The school
University of Alabama at Birmingham: 45 labs on PI Pages, $866M a year on research, 166 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.