The Knight ADRC has supported many investigators at Washington University and at other institutions over the years. We wish to avoid the situation where two investigators study the same research question to avoid duplication of effort and potential conflict. To determine if your topic has already been studied with our resources, please search our database. If you find that your topic or a related topic has been submitted, you may wish to contact the investigator to inquire about their findings to determine how you might proceed. You may wish to collaborate or modify your request to avoid overlap. The results below reflect requests made since online requests have been accepted. As such, not all fields will have data as certain information, such as aims, were not collected until recently. If an entry has been assigned an ID number (e.g. T1004), the full request has been submitted and is either approved, disapproved or in process. If an entry has no ID number, then it represents a submission that has not yet been reviewed. Search terms are applied across an entire requests application including variables not displayed below. A more specific, detailed search may yield better results depending upon your needs.
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Investigator: Bryan Denny
Project Title: Biobehavioral Mechanisms of Smartphone-based Cognitive Emotion Regulation Training for Unpaid Primary Caregivers of Persons with Alzheimer’s Disease
Date: September 23, 2025 at 2:26 pm
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Aim 1: Examine whether a novel, scalable, smartphone-based cognitive emotion regulation training intervention, modeled on a previously validated laboratory-based reappraisal training intervention paradigm, engages the targeted biobehavioral mechanisms in unpaid primary caregivers of persons with ADRD.
Aim 2: Determine the impact of changes in the targeted mechanisms in changing health-relevant behavior.
Aim 3: As an exploratory aim, to relate the effects of the intervention on behavior change as a function of changes in the targeted processes. Importantly, this aim will incorporate the age, gender, relationship to the care recipient, and baseline burden of the caregiver.
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Investigator: Cecilia Lee
Project Title: Maximizing Interoperability Across Multiple Data Types
Date: September 17, 2025 at 2:08 pm
Request ID: S2505
Aim 1: Validate retinal imaging as a biomarker of V in the A/T/(V)/(N) framework of AD. Aim 1a. Test associations between retinal imaging features and systemic vascular risk factors. Aim 1b. Test associations between retinal imaging features and neuroimaging indicators of vascular disease.
Aim 2: Assess cross-sectional associations between ocular metrics, brain imaging, and cognitive function. Aim 2a. Test associations between retinal imaging features and neuropsychologic (NP) measures. Aim 2b. Compare the strength of associations of NP measures with retinal imaging versus neuroimaging.
Aim 3: Build predictive multimodal models for AD and quantify the incremental value of retinal imaging (V) . Aim 3a. We will test the strength of associations between biomarkers and outcomes. We will combine retinal and brain imaging features using ensemble or joint representation models.
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Investigator: Ruijin Lu
Project Title: Exploring Air Pollution and Sleep in Alzheimer Disease Using Digital Tools
Date: September 9, 2025 at 12:17 pm
Request ID: S2504
Aim 1: To associate person-specific exposure to PM and VOC with sleep parameters.
Aim 2: To assess the effects of both air pollution and sleep on cognitive performance and AD biomarker
Aim 3: To develop Bayesian additive regression tree-based joint modeling methods that directly handle time-resolved digital exposure data, capturing nonlinear association and interactions and providing clinically meaningful estimates.
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Investigator: Clara Berridge
Project Title: Mechanistic study of the “Let’s Talk Tech” dyadic behavioral intervention to support decision-making about technology use
Date: August 8, 2025 at 2:43 pm
Request ID: S2503
Aim 1: Determine the effect of LTT on the hypothesized mechanisms of change: technology awareness and comprehension, CP’s perception of the PLWD/MCI’s comprehension, communication satisfaction, CP’s intention to honor the PLWD/MCI’s preferences, and dyadic alignment.
Aim 2: Test LTT and hypothesized mechanisms of change of LTT at post-test and 3 months on outcomes of CP decisional conflict and preparedness, and on dyadic sharing and confidence that PLWD/MCI’s preferences will be honored.
Aim 3: Exploratory Aim 3: Examine how, with whom, and for what purpose dyad members share technology preferences and explore factors that vary for those who shared with providers vs. family/friends.
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Investigator: Brian Gordon
Project Title: Exploring lymphatic function in aging and Alzheimer disease
Date: May 28, 2025 at 3:48 pm
Request ID: S2502
Aim 1: Identify the existence of ACE points in a sample of older adults
Aim 2: Test whether amyloid accumulates in ACE points
Aim 3: Determine if the level of amyloid accumulation at ACE points predict overall amount of amyloid in the brain
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Investigator: Jasmine Moon
Project Title: The Role of Emotion Regulation in Risky Decision-Making Behavior in Aging
Date: March 19, 2025 at 2:35 pm
Request ID: S2501
Aim 1: We aim to conduct basic research to investigate how emotion regulation can predict risky decision-making behavior through behavioral and physiological markers in individuals with preclinical Alzheimer’s disease
Aim 2: We also aim to characterize the attention and arousal patterns in individuals with preclinical Alzheimer’s disease through eye-tracking and psychophysiological methods.
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Investigator: Jeffrey M. Zacks
Project Title: IMPROVING EVERYDAY MEMORY IN HEALTHY AGING AND EARLY ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE
Date: August 20, 2024 at 12:29 pm
Request ID: S2406
Aim 1: Test whether and how attention to event segmentation improves elders memory for everyday activity at delays from minutes to weeks.
Aim 2: Test the hypothesis that effective event segmentation improves the resolution of elders posterior/medial memory representations.
Aim 3: Test whether the mechanisms and consequences of segmentation improvement are maintained or impaired by early symptomatic Alzheimer disease.
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Investigator: Tammie Benzinger
Project Title: The ADRC Consortium for Clarity in ADRD Research Through Imaging (CLARiTI)
Date: August 8, 2024 at 2:23 pm
Request ID: S2405
Aim 1: a. Aim 1. (Operational) Create a foundational shared resource: (i) Leverage the extensive ADRC program to conduct uniform amyloid, tau, FDG, and MRI scans together with plasma ADRD biomarkers in a large clinically heterogenous brain-donor-enrolled multi-ADRC cohort.
Aim 2: b. Aim 2. Deeply characterize disease burden for AD and ischemic small vessel disease (~V), the two most common diseases in the aging brain, and assess their effects on cognitive change.
Aim 3: c. Aim 3. Estimate likelihood of additional co-pathology and assess joint impact on cognitive change: While AD and V arguably have direct biomarkers of their underlying pathology, other common proteinopathies such as LBD and LATE unfortunately do not but may be estimated based on neurodegeneration p
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Investigator: Jonathan Kipnis
Project Title: Skin microbiome alterations in Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis
Date: June 14, 2024 at 3:40 pm
Request ID: S2404
Aim 1: This study aims to explore the hypothesis that changes in the scalp microbiome of Alzheimer’s patients contribute to disease pathologenesis.
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Investigator: Sarah Walter
Project Title: Engagement of general audiences in a virtual dementia conference
Date: June 10, 2024 at 10:51 am
Request ID: S2403
Aim 1: Assess whether inclusion in a virtual scientific conference, supported by small group discussions, will increase commitment to research.
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