In 2019, University of North Carolina and Duke University formed a joint investigative team combining multi-disciplinary expertise and designated institutional space to conduct collaborative, large-scale study of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and dementia. Along with basic scientists from both institutions in geriatrics, neurology, psychiatry, bioinformatics and pathology, five UNC Department of Radiology radiological sciences faculty members based at the Biomedical Research Imaging Center (BRIC) joined the UNC/Duke multi-investigator team:
* UNC Vice Chair Of Research / Biomedical Research Imaging Center (BRIC) Director Weili Lin, PhD
* Professor of Radiology /Director of UNC Cyclotron/Radiochemistry Research Program Zibo Li, PhD
* Assistant Professor of Radiology Mingxia Liu, PhD
* Professor of Radiology Eric Smith, PharmD
* Assistant Professor of Radiology Xiaopeng Zong, PhD
In early September 2021, two-year collaborative progress in early-stage AD/dementia research earned the multi-investigator team a National Institutes of Health (NIH) award to establish a nationally recognized NIH Center of Excellence with Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) designation. Funded by the NIH’s National Institute on Aging (NIA), the UNC/Duke ADRC is the newest in a federally funded network of 33 ADRCs nationwide. Over five years, UNC/Duke investigators project $14.8M (annually renewed) to fund ADRC establishment and research start-up. At major medical institutions nationwide, ADRC research focuses on factors related to early-stage development and normal progression (eg, aging, disparities) of AD and types of dementia, as well as translational results with prospects of advancing prevention and treatment. By comparison to other NIA-funded ADRCs, the UNC/Duke ARDC will be distinguished by its focus on dementia onset and progression in higher-risk, under-represented populations linked to racial, ethnic and geographic disparities.
UNC Radiology’s five BRIC co-investigators will help grow the resources at the UNC/Duke ADRC Center of Excellence through developing state-of-the-art imaging technologies and tools that identify a range of biomarkers improving the predictive power and interpretative precision of neuroimaging data used in large-scale, multi-center neurosciences research. Advanced deep learning and machine learning methods developed by the BRIC faculty contributors will aid computer-aided diagnosis and prognosis of AD and related disorders using multimodality data (eg, structural and functional MRI, PET and tau). Over the five-year NIA-funded project, the collective contributions of the five UNC BRIC investigators will reinforce the ADRC’s long-term growth in computer-aided, personalized analysis, diagnosis, timely intervention and prognosis of AD and related disorders.
Assistant Professor of Radiology Mingxia Liu, PhD, Dr. Liu noted: “This ADRC collaboration with Duke has enabled our [UNC] team to share and continue sharing with the public the MRI and PET biomarkers we have identified related to [AD] and the prodromal stage of [AD], such mild cognitive decline.”
Since 1984, NIA-funded ADRC Centers of Excellence nationwide have worked toward better understanding of markers of AD onset and normal versus dementia-linked cognitive changes, and have conducted clinical trials on potential treatments for AD. As members of the UNC/Duke team establishing this new NIA-funded ADRC over five years, UNC Radiology’s five faculty co-investigators join researchers across NIA’s network of ADRCs who are sharing data, biological samples, genetic information, therapeutic targets, and imaging and biomarkers, to assist the worldwide AD and dementia research community with advancing research and treatment related to AD and types of dementia.