For our study, we seek to: 1) determine what biological changes affect people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias; and 2) look at different kinds of brain imaging to uncover which people have normally aging brains vs. abnormally aging brains. For scientific rationale, Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide. By 2050, there will be substantially more people with dementias that impact not only the quality of their life, but have immensely negative impact on caregivers, family, and friends. We are interested in looking at all major systems in the body that are known to contribute to dementia risk or directly impact the brain. We believe in letting the science tell us which aspects of biology can best inform us about who over time has a normally aging versus abnormally aging brain. In using this data, our project will last a minimum of 36 months. We may ask to extend this data use depending on project needs. For public health impact, we believe having more biological signatures of what happens in normally vs. abnormally aging brains will unlock how to slow or stop brain changes that can strongly impact quality of life and independence.
