Grant: Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI)

Canadian sites have been active in the Alzheimer Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) since its inception. ADNI is a major study to track the progression of Alzheimer Disease (AD), devise tests to use as outcomes for potential interventions, and to develop accurate means of risk assessment for AD. Currently, there are Canadian ADNI centres in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and London Ontario. ADNI has a neuropathology component to obtain brain autopsies in any of the >1000 participants who succumb to their illness. Unfortunately, Canadian sites have provided few brain autopsies in ADNI. Our relatively poor performance here reflects the lack of a national program and infrastructure for research brain donation and tissue banking at the Canadian sites. In contrast, brain donation programs and academic neuropathology cores are present in all U.S. centres. In this grant we are proposing to establish the infrastructure necessary to maximize the brain autopsies for the ADNI program in Canada; referred to here as the Canadian ADNI BraIn bank Network (i.e. CABIN). The coordinating centre for CABIN will be under direction of Dr. Ian Mackenzie (University of British Colombia), an internationally recognized neuropathology expert in dementia. He will work with a team of dementia neuropathologists and clinicians, at the respective Canadian ADNI centres. Not only will CABIN provide brain samples for ADNI, but it will establish the organization, planning, oversight, personnel and physical infrastructure needed to promote brain donations for other ongoing and future dementia research programs in Canada. The creation of this infrastructure will be transformative to the ability to study the causes of these diseases in Canada.