A major goal of the Knight ADRC is to foster, facilitate, and support research on dementia and aging. To this end, the Center recruits research volunteers to participate in longitudinal cognitive, neuropsychologic, imaging, and biomarker assessments. Three types of resources are available:

  • Data: includes clinical and cognitive measures as well as MRI and amyloid imaging scans
  • Tissue: includes frozen brain tissue, paraffin brain sections, antemortem CSF, DNA, fibroblast, dermal fibroblasts, plasma (fasting and non-fasting) and iPSC.
  • Participant: Eligible participants may be invited to enroll in the research of other investigators after appropriate review.

As with any mature (30+years), longitudinal study, our data is complex:  tests and procedures have been added and dropped,   enrollment criteria have changed, studies have started and ended (Parkinson’s disease, very old, Lewy body disease, stroke, etc.), and funding levels have varied.  Although we have data on over 3600 research participants, the sample size for a particular request will dwindle quickly depending on eligibility criteria and measures requested. 

Example: Start with all people who have ever had an amyloid PET scan = 1187

  • Limit to people ≥65 years old at time of scan = 957
  • Limit to people who have an APOE4 allele = 374
  • Limit to people who are APOE4/4 = 47

Additional diagnostic restrictions can also limit potential participants.  Comorbidities in an elderly sample are very common; requests for ‘pure’ Alzheimer’s disease with no depression, cerebrovascular disease, etc. are very difficult to fulfill.

Important Notice

Before initiating a resource request from the Center, review the Knight ADRC Guidelines and Policies page. Failure to review the provided documents may result in your request being delayed.