National Institute on Aging Awards Expected to Total $21.1 Million to Renew Support for Cleveland Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center

CLEVELAND -- The National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a grant expected to total $21.1 million over the next five years to continue funding the Cleveland Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (CADRC). The new award will support the multi-institution collaborative, which aims to accelerate research for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.

The CADRC, led by Jagan Pillai, M.D., Ph.D., of Cleveland Clinic, was established in 2019. The multi-institutional center – the only NIH-funded Alzheimer’s research center in Ohio – brings together physicians and scientists from Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), Cleveland Clinic, Veterans Affairs Northeast Ohio Health Care System (VANEOHS), MetroHealth System and University Hospitals (UH).

More than 7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease - over 55 million globally, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. With the U.S. population aging, these numbers are continuing to grow, as will the number of people with all forms of dementia.

“The center is more than a research hub. It is an ongoing partnership with our community. By following participants over time, we gain invaluable insight into the earliest changes associated with dementia while bringing together researchers, clinicians and community members across Northeast Ohio to drive innovation and improve brain health for future generations,” said Dr. Pillai, director of Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Brain Health in Cleveland.

CADRC focuses on understanding why dementia progresses at different rates among individuals and across its various forms, with the goal of slowing progression and developing new treatments and cures. Researchers are working to improve diagnosis, care, treatment and prevention for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. The CADRC provides a national voice to the concerns of patients and families in NE Ohio while highlighting the region’s scientific talent.

“One of the great strengths of the Cleveland Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center is that it brings patients and families, clinicians and scientists together across institutions. That collaboration allows us to take questions that arise in the clinic, study them using the tremendous research resources available in Northeast Ohio, and translate what we learn back into better diagnostics, treatments and care for people living with various causes of cognitive impairment and dementia,” said Brian S. Appleby, M.D., neuropsychiatrist at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, director of the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center and professor of neurology, psychiatry and pathology at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine.

The center supports a wide range of studies while also educating scientists, healthcare professionals and the public on the causes and treatment of dementias. It has an education component designed to enhance research efforts of the Northeast Ohio Alzheimer’s medical community and add unique value to the national Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers program and other national and international research programs.

Areas of focus for the center are the study of healthy individuals at risk for developing dementia, Lewy body dementia, atypical Alzheimer’s disease, and people living in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities at higher risk for dementia. In addition, the center has developed infrastructure and support for investigators translating laboratory findings into potential new therapies.

“The extensive clinical, imaging and biological data provided by the participants provides the foundation for developing new ways to measure and predict the risk of developing dementia and new targets to accelerate the development of effective treatments,” said Jonathan Haines, chair of the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine.

To learn more about the CADRC, collaborate with our work, or request a speaker in your community, please visit https://clevelandadrc.org/ or call (833)-311-ADRC (2372). The center is funded by NIH grant P30AG072959.

The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.