UNC and Duke are teaming up to establish a joint Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. One of 33 in the nation, the Duke-UNC center plans to focus on how factors relating to the development of Alzheimer’s arise, later contributing to racial, ethnic, and geographic disparities in developing dementia.

The National Institutes of Health is funding the joint research center with a total of $14.8 million over the next five years. The center is part of a larger collaboration between UNC and Duke focusing on geriatrics, neurology, psychiatry, radiology, bioinformatics and pathology.

Gwenn Garden is the chair of the UNC Department of Neurology within the UNC School of Medicine and a co-principal investigator. She said part of the grant is aimed at recruiting a broader segment of the population for studies in Alzheimer’s research.

“Those include people who live in rural areas,” Garden said. “People from underrepresented groups within society and people who have less financial resources and less educational resources.”

Black and Latino people have a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s, but there’s not yet an understanding why. Recent research shows signs of the disease can be seen in spinal fluid and the brain years before symptoms arise, but Garden said Black and Latino populations have not largely participated within those studies.

“What we really need to do now is to recruit many of these groups,” she said, “and try to see is dementia higher in those groups because they have a higher incidence of Alzheimer’s disease or there are potential other contributors to dementia that are less well understood?”

Another difference for this UNC and Duke Alzheimer’s research center: it focuses on adults aged 45-80 who show signs of dementia before problems arise.

By studying adults in midlife who are at high risk, researchers may be able to make recommendations for lifestyle changes or clinical trials which are aimed at preventing Alzheimer’s disease.

Garden said having participants from all walks of life could also give researchers a better understanding of the biology of the brain which predisposes an individual to dementia.

“Duke and UNC traditionally are rivals when it comes to sports,” Garden said. “But when it comes to Alzheimer’s disease, we are all working together.”

Garden said the center is also establishing a collaborative program with East Carolina University, NC Central and UNC Pembroke for students to have more opportunities for Alzheimer’s research. In turn, those researchers could also help open doors for potential research participants from smaller cities and rural areas.

 

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