Research Support for IADRC’s Clinical Core

The Indiana Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (IADRC) executes research that aims to prevent and treat Alzheimer’s Disease by the year 2025 in accordance with the goals outlined by the U.S. National Alzheimer’s Project Act. IADRC performs a wide array of studies that investigate the causes of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), as well as better approaches to early detection and therapeutic treatment. My work is to support the research of the Clinical Core; the first phase of the Core’s main study consists of a neuropsychological evaluation, MRI brain imaging, biomarker analysis, and blood work. The second phase is for a team of IADRC doctors and researchers to establish causal connections between the behavioral and genetic data. A second study, the AGMP study, collects patient’s fecal samples and has made considerable headway in connecting the composition of patient's microbiomes to Alzheimer’s disease. IADRC works with patients and families in a vulnerable state; in addition to their research, IADRC also provides patients with social support services such as support groups and caregiver meetings. Not only is IADRC making strides to find methods of possible treatment of AD, but they also seek to increase the independence of their patients.