IU Repository to Be ‘Central’ Player in Alzheimer’s Fight
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Indiana University School of Medicine has secured a grant that is expected to contribute $12 million toward a globally-accessible biological sample bank. The funding from the National Institute of Health will boost the size and scope of the National Centralized Repository for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias in Indianapolis, which the school says is poised for a "central role" in developing effective Alzheimer’s disease prevention techniques and treatments by 2025.
The funds will help cover a larger, newly-renovated facility in Indianapolis, as well as production of biospecimens including DNA, cerebrospinal fluid, brain tissue and pluripotent cells that can be scientifically-altered to serve as multiple other cells. IUPUI School of Science Associate Professor of Biology Jason Meyer will be a co-investigator and lead induced pluripotent stem cell-related efforts.
Repository Director Tatiana Foroud says "we’re centralizing resources at Indiana University to make it easier for scientists from around the world to share and to access these critically important biological samples for ongoing and new research." A goal of the center is to help develop biomarkers for Alzheimer’s to aid in detection and diagnosis of the disease that is estimated to affect 8.4 million Americans over the age of 65 by 2030. "What we really want to develop is a blood-based test," said Foroud. "You would simply draw a sample of blood and run tests that predict whether an individual is at increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia, or that would tell you that symptoms are developing."
The repository, which was called the National Cell Repository for Alzheimer’s Disease until recently, was launched in the early-1990s and has since collected over 500,000 samples. The funding infusion is expected to boost that total by 300,000 over the next three years.
You can connect to more about the funding and the repository by clicking here.