A consortium of Florida institutions including the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine has been awarded a $15 million grant to collaborate on Alzheimer’s disease research.
The five-year National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging grant brings together top Florida researchers to focus on better understanding how to diagnose, treat, prevent, and potentially cure Alzheimer’s in diverse populations.
The 1Florida Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, or 1Florida ADRC, will be recruiting participants from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, the University of Florida, and Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach. Investigators from these institutions will also be collaborating with Florida Atlantic University and Florida International University.
“We are honored that this Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center is one of 31 centers of excellence designated by the National Institute on Aging. Of the 31 centers in the U.S., the 1Florida ADRC is the only funded center in Florida,” said David Loewenstein, Ph.D., ABPP/CN, associate director of 1Florida ADRC and director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and Aging at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
“The Miller School is recruiting hundreds of older adults from our local community,” said Dr. Loewenstein. Their focus is on engaging African American and Hispanic older adults to make sure they are well represented, because these groups are historically largely under-represented in aging research, including studies looking at Alzheimer’s disease.
“I am the daughter of Cuban exiles; the first to be born in this country. Spanish was my first language. Miami has nurtured this multicultural identity and I am privileged to bring it to the forefront of my work,” said Rosie E. Curiel Cid, Psy.D., leader of the1Florida ADRC Outreach, Recruitment and Engagement Core, associate professor and chief, cross-cultural neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience, in the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and Aging (CNSA). “One of the greatest challenges in aging research is ensuring that the methods we develop to detect and treat diseases of the aging brain are generalizable to all older adults. The CNSA is committed to addressing this by developing tools and methods that are cross-culturally applicable.”
To better understand diseases of the aging brain, even decades before they occur, the ADRC scientists have an expertise in studying people who don’t yet have symptoms but might be concerned about their risk for developing Alzheimer’s for another reason, such as family history. They also study older adults who may have thinking or memory problems but haven’t yet been diagnosed, as well as people who have been diagnosed with early mild cognitive impairment.
“People in the study will receive annual evaluations including comprehensive neuropsychological testing, a careful clinical examination, an MRI scan of the brain and an amyloid scan,” Dr. Loewenstein said.
Dr. Loewenstein and colleagues developed a novel cognitive stress test, called the Loewenstein-Acevedo Scales for Semantic Interference and Learning (LASSI-L) test, which will be used in the 1Florida ADRC study. LASSI-L is a scientifically proven measure that is highly sensitive to early Alzheimer’s disease brain pathology and can pick up early changes in memory before traditional cognitive testing detects the disease.
Elizabeth Crocco, M.D., chief of geriatric psychiatry and director of UM’s state-funded Memory Disorders Clinic and medical director of the CNSA, will be running the medical aspects of the 1Florida ADRC, and Tatjana Rundek, M.D., Ph.D., professor of neurology and Evelyn F. McKnight Endowed Chair for Learning and Memory in Aging, is co-leading the ADRC’s educational core with Glenn Smith, Ph.D., ABPP/CN, from the University of Florida. The 1Florida ADRC will help train the next generation of scientists in Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.
