The UW ADRC is one of thirty-one Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers (ADRCs) and Alzheimer's Disease Centers (ADCs) at major medical institutions across the nation, funded by the NIH National Institute on Aging. Researchers at these centers are working to translate research advances into improved diagnosis and care for Alzheimer’s disease patients while, at the same time, focusing on the program’s long-term goal—finding a way to cure and possibly prevent Alzheimer's. For patients and families affected by Alzheimer's, the ADRCs and ADCs may offer information about the disease, services, and resources and opportunities for volunteers to participate in drug trials, support groups, clinical research projects, and other special programs for volunteers and their families.
Research into neurodegenerative diseases happens at centers across the University of Washington. How does the UW Alzheimer's Disease Research Center fit into this world?
First and foremost, we aim to be a resource of basic and clinical research materials, data, and collaborations.
Programs and centers in direct interaction with the UW ADRC and our resources, funding, and databanks
Adult Changes in Thought Study (ACT) at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Research Institute and UW - Since 1986, the ACT Study has followed over 5,000 aging participants from the community from age 65 and older, collecting information on health and cognitive function every 2 years. Some develop dementia, and some agree to donate their brains at the end of life. ADRC researchers leverage this extensive data resource to identify the environmental and genetic factors that increase the risk of brain disease and find ways to help communities delay or avoid dementia. (UW Team Members)
The Alzheimer's Resilience Core is a philanthropically supported longitudinal research lab at the University of Washington, funded by the Ellison Foundation built in collaboration with the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC) and the Memory and Brain Wellness Center (MBWC). It follows the same people year after year, because the things that protect thinking act over decades and no single visit can show them. It is a study rather than a place to be treated, and what it learns is shared back with the communities that made the learning possible.
A state of the art CLIA Certified and CAP Accredited clinical genetic testing program. CPDx researchers help UW ADRC researchers to perform whole exome sequencing.
The Integrated Brain Imaging Center, directed by UW ADRC Director Thomas Grabowski, MD, Professor of Neurology and Radiology at the UW School of Medicine, is a research resource center at the University of Washington for advancing knowledge of the organization of the human brain in health and disease. IBIC focuses and fosters expertise in cognitive neuroscience, human MRI-based neuroimaging, and medicine, across departments and colleges at the UW.
Researchers at the UW Medicine Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine are working collaboratively to study and stop diseases impacting nearly every organ and system in the human body, including Alzheimer’s, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, kidney diseases, muscle disorders, and other chronic conditions.
The UW ADRC's Jessica Young, PhD and her ISCRM colleague Suman Jayadev, MD are using stem cells from deceased Alzheimer’s patients to study the early biological processes that may contribute to the onset of the disease. Using this “disease-in-a-dish” model, ISCRM researchers can take any cell from a patient and reprogram it, giving it the potential to become any kind of cell in the body, including brain cells. These induced pluripotent stem cells allow researchers to explore how to prevent harmful proteins from building up in the brain and to test potential drugs in ways that would not be possible with actual human tissue. (via ISCRM)
Nathan Shock Center of Excellence in Basic Biology of Aging is one of six NIA-funded Nathan Shock Centers of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging across the United States. This Center of Excellence (P30AG013280 from the National Institute on Aging) provides leadership and resources to support the Geroscience community locally, nationally, and internationally. The Center is co-directed by UW Jessica Young, PhD, Associate Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology. Dr. Young is the co-lead of the UW ADRC Precision Neuropathology Core.