# Piloting a web-based neuropathology image resource for the ADRC community

> **NIH NIH P30** · EMORY UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $351,193

## Abstract

The goal of the parent Emory Goizueta Disease Research Center (ADRC) is to provide
support and facilitate the growth of clinicians and the clinical and research research activities for
Alzheimer's disease and related disorders (ADRD). Central to this goal is the ability to freely
distribute and share relevant data generated through these efforts. The National Alzheimer's
Coordinating Center (NACC) facilitates these efforts, helping to harmonize clinical data from
across individual ADRC sites. Neuropathologic evaluation of brain tissue is central to the
diagnosis and staging of these diseases, but the histology data is not widely shared within this
community. The increasing availability of whole slide imaging systems now makes data sharing
feasible, although this is currently challenging. The lack of standard file formats, inconsistent
naming schemas, image de-identification, and the enormous size of these images are ongoing
challenges. We have developed the Digital Slide Archive (DSA) platform at Emory, which has
been funded through a U24 and U01 grants from the NCI/NIH and has primarily been optimized
for Cancer related image analysis workflows. Over the past year, as a proof of principle, we have
collected image sets from six ADRC sites using the DSA platform. As described in this notice of
special interest, numerous challenges remain to transform and harmonize heterogenous imaging
data sets before they can be made AI/ML ready.
 In this proposal, we propose enhancing the DSA platform to support federating large
neuropath imaging data sets. This will include developing a standardized data dictionary to
describe slide level metadata, and tooling to facilitate data cleanup. We will also benchmark and
optimize our analysis suite (HistomicsTK) on NP slide sides on local and cloud-based
computational resources, and prepare tutorials demonstrating how our tools can be used for
ADRD related image analysis tasks. These aims paired with the complementary and synergistic
expertise of our informatics, pathology, and engineering will aid in development of robust,
scalable, reliable, and sharable platforms to provide a foundation for innovative transformative
science addressing a critical unmet need in neurodegenerative disease research.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10594297
- **Project number:** 3P30AG066511-03S2
- **Recipient organization:** EMORY UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** David Andrew Gutman
- **Activity code:** P30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $351,193
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2020-07-15 → 2025-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10594297

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10594297, Piloting a web-based neuropathology image resource for the ADRC community (3P30AG066511-03S2). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-01 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10594297. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*