Longitudinal Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease Study (LEADS)

My internship is at the IU Health Neuroscience Center under Dr. Apostolova. The Longitudinal Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease Study (LEADS) is focused on understanding the disease progression in order to develop clinical and biomarker measures for future clinical and research use. LEADS is an observational study and enrolls cognitively impaired participants and cognitively normal participants from 40-64 years old. Participants in the study undergo neurological and physical exams, neuropsychological testing, neuroimaging procedures, biofluid sample collection, and genetic testing. In my time with LEADS, I’ve been able to shadow a coordinator during neuropsychological testing, observe an MRI and PET scan, and attend consensus meetings as the researchers evaluate the neurological testing and neuroimaging in order to determine a participant’s research diagnosis. A few of my tasks with the study consist of preparing binders for study visits, prepping blood and CSF kits, uploading documents after visits, and inputting information into REDCap. For my final project, I will discuss the LEADS study and its importance and explain how these tasks play into the bigger picture.