Research Enterprise

NIH has long supported and built key research and clinical infrastructure to advance Alzheimer’s and related dementias research around the nation. These critical investments in robust research infrastructure continue to pay dividends and make new research possible. For example, the more than 30 Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers (ADRCs) work to translate research advances into improved diagnosis and care for people living with Alzheimer’s.

In 2023, NIH funded a new consortium that will leverage the ADRCs to standardize PET and MRI imaging protocols. This will help researchers better understand Alzheimer’s and related dementias, including mixed dementias (dementia with more than one underlying cause), in living people. As another example, IMPACT Collaboratory researchers published a national database of older adult COVID-19 vaccine data in October 2023 that can be used by scientists to understand vaccine effectiveness in older adults, including those with dementia. In addition, the IMPACT Collaboratory has spurred the development of the Long-Term Care Data Cooperative . This provider-led effort assembles electronic health record data across multiple long-term care providers to generate real-world evidence on different treatments and care practices for nursing home residents. Already the largest and most comprehensive health records database of its kind, the Data Cooperative has continued to grow, with more than 2,700 nursing facilities from over 230 companies currently participating, representing more than 500,000 residents. This data infrastructure will enable monitoring for future public health emergencies and improve assessment of the impact of treatment and policy changes.

In early 2022, the NIH Center for Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias (CARD) opened its doors on the NIH campus. CARD is meant to accelerate efforts to understand, prevent, and treat Alzheimer’s and related dementias. CARD researchers have already made significant headway in producing and sharing invaluable resources with the broader scientific community, with several new recent advances:

• CARD scientists identified and made available a collection of stem cells that can be used to study the gene variants behind Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative disorders. The cells will help scientists worldwide study how these variants damage the nervous system in a uniform genetic background.
• CARD researchers have established a stem cell repository containing stem cells from both healthy individuals and those diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. The full repository will include 200 stem cell lines, with a balanced gender mix that captures a broad range of diverse ancestries (e.g., European, Black and African American, Asian, Native American, and Latino/Hispanic backgrounds). Cell lines are already being made available to the research community and may help researchers find new biomarkers of Alzheimer’s progression and understand how the disease affects different types of brain cells.
• CARD researchers have also made new tools and resources available to scientists. As one example, genome sequencing is a powerful research method used to discover genetic variations in human populations. However, some portions of the human genome can be very difficult to sequence appropriately. To address this issue, CARD’s genetic experts developed and published a new protocol to sequence challenging regions of the human genome. These methods will be used by the research community to learn more about the Alzheimer’s genome and identify new and rare genetic variants. This protocol may also have broad applications beyond dementia research that can help investigators researching the genomes of other conditions. Further, CARD researchers developed and used a new machine learning tool to uncover similarities in key genetic risk variants across different neurodegenerative diseases, which can help advance our understanding of these conditions. The researchers have not only made this powerful tool available to the research community but have also developed an interactive website to help scientists further explore research findings.

In addition to establishing key research and dissemination infrastructure, NIH funds several important efforts to support and develop a well-trained and inclusive workforce engaged in this research and capable of making use of NIH-funded infrastructure.

Growing the scientific and clinical research workforce

NIH programs encompass a broad range of workforce development initiatives across the spectrum of career opportunities, from academia to clinical research to entrepreneurship and beyond. Examples include but are not limited to: