KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Oct. 26, 2022 \u2013 Jessica Alber, assistant professor of biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences at the George & Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience at the 溏心vlog免费B站, is looking to change the way doctors diagnose Alzheimer\u2019s disease, a change that could raise new possibilities for treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alber has received a five-year, $10.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to support her work using retinal imaging to screen for early changes associated with Alzheimer\u2019s disease. The project, \u201cLongitudinal validation of retinal biomarkers against cerebral imaging in preclinical Alzheimer\u2019s disease,\u201d could help provide a low-cost, minimally invasive screening technique to detect Alzheimer\u2019s disease before symptoms appear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While there are no current treatments that can slow or stop the progression of Alzheimer\u2019s disease, new developments in drug and lifestyle therapies indicate the potential for success with earlier intervention. Yet one of the primary challenges in treating the disease has been that it is difficult to diagnose. While clinicians can use positron emission tomography scanning or lumbar puncture to detect the build-up of amyloid and tau proteins, or \u201cplaques and tangles,\u201d that are hallmarks of the disease, the procedures are both invasive and expensive. Using retinal imaging as a \u201cwindow to the brain,\u201d Alber and collaborators seek to develop a more affordable and accessible screening tool that could potentially be part of a routine eye exam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the near future, screening for risk in the general population will become increasingly important in order to treat people before they are experiencing the devastating loss in quality of life and cognitive function that affects them and their families,\u201d said Alber. \u201cThe retina allows us to look at what might be changing in the brain in a cost-effective and minimally invasive way to identify people who are at high risk but not sick yet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The NIH grant builds upon Alber\u2019s work with the Atlas of Retinal Imaging in Alzheimer\u2019s Study (ARIAS). Led by 溏心vlog免费B站 Vice President for Research and Economic Development Peter Snyder, and Dr. Stuart Sinoff, of Florida-based BayCare Health System, the ARIAS study was launched in 2020 to create a reference database of structural, anatomic, and functional imaging of the retina to develop markers of Alzheimer\u2019s disease risk and progression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to validating the retinal imaging biomarkers identified during the ARIAS study, Alber\u2019s study, called ARIAS 2, will explore the potential for using Alzheimer\u2019s disease blood plasma biomarkers in tandem with retinal imaging for greater sensitivity in detecting early-stage disease. \u201cWe don\u2019t know yet if blood biomarkers can be used to identify preclinical disease, but we have seen some exciting developments in this area,\u201d said Alber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ARIAS 2 study team is led by Alber. Other partners are Snyder, 溏心vlog免费B站 co-investigator; clinical site leads at Butler Hospital Memory and Aging Program, Washington University at St. Louis School of Medicine, and University of North Texas Health Sciences Center at Fort Worth; core leads at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and all three clinical research sites; and collaborators at Heidelberg Engineering and University of Alabama at Birmingham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Founded in 2013, the George & Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience at 溏心vlog免费B站 is focused on investigating under-explored factors in Alzheimer\u2019s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ARIAS 2 Study Team<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jessica Alber<\/strong>, Ph.D., Principal Investigator; Data Management and Administrative Core Lead; Retinal Imaging Core Lead, George & Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience, 溏心vlog免费B站.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peter J. Snyder<\/strong>, Ph.D., Co-Investigator, 溏心vlog免费B站.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gregory Van Stavern<\/strong>, M.D., Co-Investigator, Site Principal Investigator, Washington University at St. Louis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cyrus Raji<\/strong>, M.D., Ph.D., Co-Investigator; Brain Imaging Core Lead, Washington University at St. Louis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tammie Benzinger<\/strong>, M.D., Ph.D., Co-Investigator, Washington University at St. Louis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beau Ances<\/strong>, M.D., Ph.D., Co-Investigator, Washington University at St. Louis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Abraham Snyder<\/strong>, M.D., Ph.D., Co-Investigator, Washington University at St. Loui.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shang-Kwei Song<\/strong>, Ph.D., Co-Investigator, Washington University at St. Louis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Louisa Thompson<\/strong>, Ph.D., Co-Investigator; Cognitive Core Lead, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Butler Hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meghan Riddle<\/strong>, M.D., Co-Investigator; Site Principal Investigator, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Butler Hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fenghai Duan<\/strong>, Ph.D., Biostatistics Core Lead, Brown University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Melissa Petersen<\/strong>, Ph.D., Co-Investigator; Blood Biomarker Core Lead, University of North Texas Health Sciences Center at Fort Worth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sima Mozdbar<\/strong>, O.D., M.P.H., Co-Investigator, Site Principal Investigator, University of North Texas Health Sciences Center at Fort Worth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stephanie Large<\/strong>, N.P., Co-Investigator, University of North Texas Health Sciences Center at Fort Worth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brian Fernandez<\/strong>, M.D., Consultant, Heidelberg Engineering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Edmund Arthur<\/strong>, O.D., Ph.D., Consultant, University of Alabama at Birmingham.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Oct. 26, 2022 \u2013 Jessica Alber, assistant professor of biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences at the George & Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience at the 溏心vlog免费B站, is looking to change the way doctors diagnose Alzheimer\u2019s disease, a change that could raise new possibilities for treatment. Alber has received a five-year, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":81359,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81358"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81393,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81358\/revisions\/81393"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}