IU School of Medicine Receives $30M NIA Grant
(photo courtesy of the IU School of Medicine)
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe National Institute on Aging has renewed its funding for the National Centralized Repository for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias at the Indiana University School of Medicine. IU says the funding, which is expected to total $30 million, will support the NCRAD for another five years.
The NCRAD supports research about causes, early detection, and therapeutic development for Alzheimer’s and other dementias. The repository is home to more than a million biological samples, including DNA, plasma, brain tissue and cell lines.
The NCRAD is led by Dr. Tatiana Foroud, executive associate dean for research affairs at IU School of Medicine.
“National Centralized Repository for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias serves as the primary resource for samples for all NIA-funded dementia studies,” said Foroud. “In the next five years, our recruitment efforts will focus on engaging diverse communities to obtain a broad range of samples from individuals that represent the diversity of populations that make up our nation and our world.”
IU says the samples assist scientists in conducting a variety of Alzheimer’s and dementia research, such as the development of blood-based biomarker tests, which are less expensive and invasive than other methods for early detection of dementias, such as PET scans and testing of cerebrospinal fluid.
With the latest expansion in 2018, the NCRAD program changed its name to include “Related Dementias,” added staff members, and centralized the samples in larger, newly-renovated facilities in Indianapolis.
The university says the NCRAD is one of several research initiatives to receive funding from the NIA as part of its goal to develop ways to treat Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias by 2025.