# Clinical/Imaging Core

> **NIH NIH U19** · NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $1,555,485

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY (Clinical / Imaging):
Memory complaints are widespread among the elderly and aging is a major risk factor for Alzheimer's disease
(AD), leading to the impression that a gradual loss of memory ability, eventually culminating in dementia, may
be a nearly universal consequence of getting old. This Consortium will explore an alternative aging trajectory by
studying 80+ year-olds that we have labelled `SuperAgers', who have episodic memory performance that
appears to have escaped age-related decline and that remains in the range that is at least normal for 50-60-
year-olds and. The study of SuperAgers was initiated at Northwestern University and will be extended through
this Consortium. The Clinical/Imaging Core of the SuperAging Consortium will establish standardized inclusion
criteria and uniform assessments for the harmonized cross-site characterization of SuperAgers and their
Controls. Aim 1 will coordinate enrollment and harmonized data collection on at least 500 participants (300
SuperAgers, 200 Controls) across the United States and Canada into a prospective longitudinal study, which
includes health, lifestyle, and neurocognitive assessments, as well as MR imaging, blood samples, and eventual
brain donation. Particular emphasis will be placed on enhancing recruitment of diverse participants from Sites
with strengths in recruitment and sophisticated characterization of older adults. Aim 2 will support studies that
confirm and extend previous findings in a larger and more diverse cohort as well as identification of new factors
associated with unusually successful aging. Aim 3 will launch new directions of investigation through the support
of the two Projects associated with this Consortium and collaborative investigations. Outcomes from this
Consortium will substantially increase the depth and breadth of investigations on unusually successful cognitive
aging. The factors to be identified will be directly relevant to sustained cognitive health in late life and to the
concepts of resilience, resistance and cognitive reserve.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10276529
- **Project number:** 1U19AG073153-01
- **Recipient organization:** NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** SANDRA WEINTRAUB
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $1,555,485
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-09-30 → 2026-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10276529

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10276529, Clinical/Imaging Core (1U19AG073153-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10276529. Licensed CC0.

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