 UAMS Alzheimer's Disease Core Center
 Overview The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) proposes to establish an Alzheimer's Disease Core Center (ADCC) with the mission of providing a shared resource to facilitate and enhance Alzheimer's disease internationally. It will bring together a cadre of research scientists and educators from a variety of disciplines, including geriatrics, neurology, neuropathology, nursing, radiology, geropharmacology, geropsychology, and health service research. ADCC resources requested in this application will sustain and strengthen the Department of Geriatric's current internationally-recognized AD research programs, which including basic research to develop early detection markers and to identify targets for therapeutic interventions of inflammatory mechanisms in AD pathogenesis; clinical research to identify and implement strategies that promote functional independence and decrease problem behaviors among older adults with AD, and health services research to identify predictors of service use among AD patients and their caregivers and the impact of this use on primary care providers when determining the diagnosis of dementia. The Administrative Core will advance AD research by stimulating expanded interdisciplinary collaboration on critical AD questions. The Clinical Core will stimulate AD research by longitudinally assessing a cohort of older adults with dementia and controls, including individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds with an emphasis on rural and African-American adults. The Neuropathology Core will contribute to both basic and clinical research by correlating clinically well-characterized patient material with post-mortem data. The Education Core will disseminate AD information to professionals, patients and families, particularly those in African- American and rural communities. The strengths in AD research at UAMS will allow the ADCC to investigate the development, physical and behavioral effects and social impact of AD. This ADCC will contribute to the overall goals of the National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer's Association by focusing on prevention and early detection of AD through basic research in neuropathology, clinical research on functional performance and problem behaviors, and health services research examining issues of access and utilization.
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