# Administrative Supplement to Establish National Exposome Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) Infrastructure (Expo-AD)

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON · 2022 · $3,451,498

## Abstract

The exposome, comprising the variety of life-course exposures and influenced by structural inequities such as
systematic racism, is theorized to interact with biological, behavioral, sociocultural, and economic mechanisms
as a modifiable factor influencing Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) risk and resilience. The
disparities-aligned exposome is optimally linked to biologic health outcomes using participant residential history-
- denoted by US privacy law as ‘protected health information’ or PHI and subject to stringent regulation. The
complicated legal, administrative, and technical research infrastructure challenges with PHI-data have formed
substantial barriers to ADRD-aligned exposome study, leading to a present state in which most national biologic
repositories and resources curate only non-PHI data thus prohibiting direct disparities-aligned exposome metric
linkage. Due to data security concerns including the substantial cybersecurity risk an institution assumes in
storage of PHI-data from outside the home institution, there are no existing resources to link geo-specific
exposures to ADRD outcomes on a national scale. Many do not understand the complexity of this task or the
effort and expertise required to succeed. To our knowledge, our team is the only ADRD group in the nation
already building such infrastructure as part of R01AG070883. The proposed supplement will extend the reach
of the parent R01 and remove barriers in exposome science by addressing the infrastructure expansion needed
to connect key NIA national data and biorepository resources to PHI-requiring exposome metrics while shielding
these NIA research infrastructures from the burden of PHI management. The proposed application for an
infrastructure supplement conducted within the scope of the parent R01 is directly responsive to NOT-AG-22-
022 and the Congressional language that led to the allocation of these funds; specifically, to support
infrastructure that enables the linkage of life-course exposure factors to biological outcomes, characterized
through a mechanistic health disparities lens. Our research group has been leading the field in these approaches,
including precision geo-targeting. Our long-term goal is to establish PHI-management research infrastructure to
allow for exposome linkage and sharing for non-PHI storing NIA core resources, aligning with and addressing
the privacy needs outlined in NOT-AG-22-022. Our specific proposal goal is to build such infrastructure across
the 22 ADRCs in R01AG070883, including developing data intake and linkage processes for new exposome
metrics (pollution). We will enhance, refine and establish enduring, ethical and community-aligned administrative
and legal agreement, process and coordination infrastructure for on-going PHI and exposome data flow intake
and non-PHI exposome data outflow; enact data acquisition, intake, linkage and management processes for
additional ADRD disparities-aligned exposome metrics (e.g....

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10658250
- **Project number:** 3R01AG070883-02S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
- **Principal Investigator:** Barbara Brigitta Bendlin
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $3,451,498
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2021-03-01 → 2026-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10658250

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10658250, Administrative Supplement to Establish National Exposome Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) Infrastructure (Expo-AD) (3R01AG070883-02S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10658250. Licensed CC0.

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