MBWC Becomes an Alzheimer’s Disease Clinical Trial Consortium Site
The Alzheimer’s Clinical Trials Consortium (ACTC) is a nationally funded clinical trials infrastructure designed to accelerate the testing of new therapies for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. The MBWC was recently chosen as one of the ACTC’s 32 member sites. This membership means more opportunities for the MBWC to participate as a site for cutting-edge clinical trials supported by industry-academic partnerships.
The ACTC brings an influx of NIH funds and access to centralized resources and shared expertise of leaders in Alzheimer’s disease and clinical trials. The ACTC will fund an outreach coordinator to help the UW team build partnerships with surrounding communities to increase engagement in clinical trials at the UW MBWC’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.
Michael Rosenbloom, MD, Associate Professor of Neurology at UW Medicine, is the principal investigator for the ACTC site at the MBWC and is a member of the ACTC steering committee.
“The ACTC is a gamechanger for the MBWC’s Clinical Trials program,” said Rosenbloom. “We will now be able to take our clinical trials program to the next level, conducting the most promising and innovative trials, while tapping into the ACTC’s network of world experts on Alzheimer’s disease.”
The UW ADRC Precision Neuropathology Core will also play a role in ACTC, performing post-mortem neuropathology evaluations on trial participants.
“We are honored to have this source of national visibility and recognition,” said Thomas Grabowski, MD, Director of the MBWC and ADRC. “The ACTC ups the game on the kinds of clinical trials that we’re doing here.” For example, the Anti-Tau Platform Trial (ATP) will be testing the effects of combined anti-amyloid and anti-tau therapies on cognitive decline and will launch soon.
Darla Chapman, DNP, ARNP, a nurse practitioner and MBWC Clinic principal investigator and clinician, will serve as Co-Investigator on the studies run in partnership with the ACTC. This will involve overseeing the day-to-day operations of the studies, performing study-specific assessments, and monitoring the safety and health status of study participants.
“I am most excited about the opportunity to connect individuals living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias to groundbreaking clinical trials that have the potential to benefit not only their own lives, but also future generations,” said Chapman. •
