The goal of the Cleveland Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (CADRC) is to increase the speed of research being done on aging related diseases. The Clinical Core, led by Dr. Alan Lerner, will recruit a group of participants diagnosed with different forms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy Body Dementia. We will also enroll people without any diagnosis of dementia who may have a family history of dementia. The Clinical Core staff will follow participants over time collecting detailed clinical information, biospecimens, and imaging data with the goal of better understanding the biology of different forms of dementia.
The Clinical Core includes physicians and clinical researchers from Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals. Together they coordinate the many elements that make up participation in the CADRC, including scheduling visits, making sure that participants and their families understand what it means to be in the study (the informed consent process), administering a neurologic exam and neuropsychological tests of memory and thinking, and taking detailed histories of the participant’s health and family background. Clinical Core personnel also schedule special procedures– lumbar punctures, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET scans)—and complete data entry so that all the information about every participant is safely stored and accessible.
Personnel:
Dr. Alan J. Lerner, Clinical Core Leader
Dr. James Leverenz, Co-Investigator
Dr. Jagan Pillai, Co-Investigator
Dr. Brian S. Appleby, Co-Investigator
Dr. Stephen Rao, Co-Investigator
Dr. Paula K. Ogrocki, Co-Investigator
Matt Zgodinski, Nurse Practitioner
Parianne Fatica, Clinical Research Specialist
Emma Forner, Research Assistant
Maria Toth, RN
Jada Houston, Research Coordinator
Courtney Jost, Research Coordinator
Elizabeth Kisela, Research Coordinator
Fran Lissemore, Clinical Core Project Manager
Megan Schneider, Research Coordinator
Marianne Sanders, RN
Susie Sami, MA, CCRC Clinical Research Specialist II