The goal is to create approaches that will accelerate clinical trials through biomarkers and researchers. | File photo
+ Technology/Innovation
Amanda Rupp | Sep 10, 2016

NIH award broadens biomarker study for Alzheimer’s

The Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging initiative (ADNI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) study of brain and fluid biomarkers of Alzheimer’s, recently received new funding to make progress with launching ADNI3.

To further Alzheimer’s research, the NIH has funded the organization with approximately $40 million throughout the next five years. In addition, experts anticipate another $20 million from private sector donations with the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health.

“ADNI3 will move the bar higher still in this collaborative effort to gain a clear understanding of the subtle Alzheimer’s-related brain changes in volunteers, long before symptoms appear, and the biological changes that mark its progression,” NIH Director Richard Hodes said. “These insights are vital to researchers and clinicians working worldwide in their selection of clinical trial volunteers and the testing of promising interventions.”

With these funds, ADNI3 will be able to apply the latest technologies to capture images of the brain. It will also recruit countless new volunteers to expand its groundbreaking study, which is continuing its 12th year. The goal is to create approaches that will accelerate clinical trials through biomarkers and researchers.

“We are thrilled to embark on this next phase of discovery, enhanced by sophisticated new technologies and computational methods that we could only dream about when we launched the study in 2004,” Dr. Michael Weiner, of the San Francisco Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and principal investigator in the study, said. “ADNI has made a profound difference in clinical trials, developing and refining the biomarker tools needed to see Alzheimer’s-related brain changes in the living brain — even in people free of symptoms. ADNI3 will play an even more influential role as these biomarkers are enlisted in the search for treatments for this devastating disorder.”

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