Clinical Core

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