The UW ADRC is an NIH-funded Center of Excellence in Alzheimer’s Disease and related degenerative dementias (AD/ADRD) that belongs to a national network of ADRCs. We maintain AD/ADRD research resources for the benefit of local and national scientific investigators. The UW ADRC seeks proposals for Development Projects that advance our understanding, diagnosis, and/or treatment of AD/ADRD. Pending a successful ADRC Center renewal for 2025-2030, the UW ADRC aims to fund 2-3 projects with a budget of up to $75,000 (direct costs) per year, which includes funds to provide data management and statistical support. Awarded projects are for a one-year project period (5/1/2025 through 4/30/2026), with the option to be extended for one additional year upon approval.
The Development Projects program replaces and extends the former Pilot Award program, and is closely linked to our new Research Education Component. The currently funded ADRC Development Projects are listed here:
Development Projects
2024- 2025
Gregory J. del Zoppo, MD, MS, Professor of Medicine, UW Neuropathology Division
Modulation of thrombin generation in the central nervous system confers resilience to Alzheimer’s disease.
Jeanne Gallée, PhD, CCC-SLP, Postdoctoral Scholar, Center for Psychometric Analyses of Aging and Neurodegeneration, UW School of Medicine
The assessment of functional communication in primary progressive aphasia
Nicole Liachko, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, UW Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine
Kinase and phosphatase dysregulation underlying neuron vulnerability to TDP-43 in FTLD-TDP and ALS
Briana Meyer, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, UW Department of Radiology
Establishing blood-brain barrier biomarkers related to Alzheimer’s disease
2023 - 2024
Yeilim Cho, MD, MIRECC Advanced Fellow, Veterans Affairs VISN-20 Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center
Project: Defining the relationship between obstructive sleep apnea and MRI measures of glymphatic dysfunction
Angela Hanson, MD, Assistant Professor, UW Division of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, UW School of Medicine
Tomas Vaisar, PhD, Research Professor and Director, Proteomics and Bioinformatics Core, Diabetes Research Center, Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition, Department of Internal Medicine, UW School of Medicine
Project: Heterogeneity of Brain Lipoprotein Particles in Alzheimer’s Disease
Mehmet Kurt, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, UW
Project: Investigating in-vivo brain mechanical properties as Alzheimer’s Disease biomarkers through multifrequency MR Elastography
Andrew B. Stergachis, MD, PhD, FACMG, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Genome Sciences, Division of Medical Genetics, UW
Project: Resolving Alzheimer’s disease risk loci using phased long-read chromatin maps
2022 - 2023
Niranjan Balu, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, UW Radiology
Carolyn Parsey, PhD, Assistant Professor, UW Neurology
Project: Vascular contributions to Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias
Swati Mishra, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, UW Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology
Project: Defining the role of endo-lysosomal dysfunction in human microglia harboring Alzheimer’s disease (AD)- predisposing mutations in a 2-dimensional monolayer and a novel 3-dimensional cerebral organoid model system
Monica Sanchez-Contreras, PhD, Acting Instructor, UW Computer Science and Engineering
Project: Somatic mtDNA mutations as contributors to amyloid pathology and tauopathy in Alzheimer’s disease
Jason Webster, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, UW Radiology
Project: Facilitating brain biorepository use: Atlas-based Labelling of neuropathological sampling
Oleg Zaslavsky, PhD, Associate Professor, UW Biobehavioral Nursing & Health Informatics
Project: Speech-based coherence for early detection of adverse health events in people living with Alzheimer's disease
2021 - 2022
Read about the 2021 - 2022 Development project awards
Kimberly Alonge, PhD. Acting Instructor, UW Medicine
Project: Brain glycan sulfation recoding in Alzheimer's disease
Katherine Prater, PhD. Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Jayadev Lab), Department of Neurology, UW Medicine
Project: Understanding microglia responses in resilience, cognitive decline, and neuropathological proteopathy
Astrid Suchy-Dicey, PhD. Assistant Professor, Elson S. Floyd Collecge of Medicine, Washington State University
Project: Plasma phosphorylated tau protein and Alzheimer's disease in American Indians: The Strong Heart Study
Yuliang Wang, PhD. Research Assistant Professor, Paul Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering/Institute for Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine, University of Washington
Project: Using metabolic network modeling to improve the maturity of iPSC-derived microglia for Alzheimer's disease
2020-2021
Read about the 2020-2021 projects.
Meredith Course, PhD Postdoctoral Fellow, Division of Medical Genetics, UW Medicine.
Project: Novel Transcripts of PSEN1 and PSEN2 in Familial and Sporadic Alzheimer Disease
Deidre Jansson, MSc, PhD Senior Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, UW School of Medicine
Project: Defining the cellular and transcriptomics architecture of the choroid plexus in Alzheimer's disease: a pilot study
Elizabeth Rhea, PhD Research Biologist, VA Puget Sound Health Care System/ Research Assistant Professor, Division of Gerontology, UW
Project: Soluble insulin receptor levels in Alzheimer's disease
Past Pilot Projects
The Development Projects program replaces and extends the former Pilot Award program. The previously funded ADRC Pilot Projects are listed here:
2019-2020
Junior Investigators and projects:
Douglas Barthold, PhD Research Assistant Professor, Comparative Health Outcomes, Policy, and Economics (CHOICE) Institute, Department of Pharmacy, UW.
Project: Alzheimer’s disease related neuropathology among patients with medication treated type 2 diabetes in a community-based autopsy cohort
Erik S. Carlson, MD, PhD Assistant Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, UW.
Project: Compensatory Cerebellar Circuits in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer Disease.
Judit Marsillach, PhD Acting Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Medical Genetics, UW.
Project: Paraoxonase-1 as an early biomarker of Alzheimer’s Disease
2018-2019
Michelle Erickson, PhD Research Assistant Professor, UW Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine / Research Biologist, VA Puget Sound Healthcare System.
Project: Serum amyloid A as a liver-derived mediator of Alzheimer’s disease.
Robert Freishtat, MD, MPH Chief of Emergency Medicine, Children’s National Health System/ Professor of Pediatrics, Emergency Medicine, and Integrative Systems Biology, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Project: Neurodegeneration by adipocyte-derived exosomes in dementia.
Hesamoddin Jahanian, PhD Assistant Professor, Integrated Brain Imaging Center (IBIC), Department of Radiology, UW.
Project: Development of Ultrafast Resting-State fMRI as a Biomarker for Alzheimer’s Disease.
Richard S. Morrison, PhD Staatz Professor of Neurological Surgery, UW; Director, Center for Neuroproteomics.
Project: Epigenetic role for histone deacetylase 2 in Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis.
Paul Valdmanis, PhD Assistant Professor, Division of Medical Genetics, UW.
Project: Contribution of human-specific repeat expansions to Alzheimer’s Disease.
2016-2017
Martin Darvas, PhD Multiplex assay for the quantification of antigens in paraffin-embedded tissue.
Meghan Jernigan, MPH Alzheimer’s disease research pilot for American Indians and Alaska natives.
Caitlin Latimer, MD, PhD Human and Non-Human Primate Synaptic Damage.
Erica Melief, PhD Dopaminergic influence on amyloid beta.
Jessica Young, PhD Probing the role of endocytic network in sporadic AD risk using human induced pluripotent stem cells.
- 2015
Andrew Hoofnagle, MD, PhD Quantification of A-beta and Tau in CSF by LC-MS/MS.
Olena Korvatska, PhD Role of the R41H TREM2 variant in the pathogenesis of late onset AD.
Brian Kraemer, MD, PhD Preclinical Study of D2 Antagonists for Neuroprotection Against Pathological Tau.
Tara Madhyastha, PhD Neuroimaging Biomakers of Cognitive Resilience Among APOE-4 Carriers.
Desiree Marshall, MD Novel Data and Tissue Resource to Study CTE and AD Neuropathology.
Lonnie Nelson, PhD Strong Heart Stroke Study for Urban Indians and Alaska Natives Americans.
Min Shi, PhD Pilot study of potential Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers in human saliva.
Jeannine Skinner, PhD Health Education, Aerobic and Resistance Training (HEART) in Prediabetic African Americans to compare the effects of exercise and health education on the thinking abilities, insulin sensitivity, and levels of Alzheimer's biomarkers in a group of African Americans with prediabetes.
Jessica (Foraker) Tulloch, PhD Epigenetics of APOE in Alzheimer’s Disease Neurons.
Adrienne Wang, PhD The effects of natural variation on Alzheimer's pathology in Drosophila.
Seed Grant Projects
Alexander Mendenhall, PhD Cell autonomous and cell non autonomous pathologies caused by expression of A-beta, Tau and alpha-synuclein in C. elegans.
C. Dirk Keene, MD, PhD Neuropathology Core resource for induced pluripotent stem cells.
