# Biomarker Core

> **NIH NIH P30** · MAYO CLINIC ROCHESTER · 2024 · $357,585

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY – BIOMARKER CORE
The overall goal of the Biomarker Core is to collect, bank, and distribute fluid biospecimens and to generate
and share extensive biomarker datasets with the scientific community to address the heterogeneity and improve
diagnosis for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and AD-related dementias (ADRD). Indeed, the Mayo Clinic ADRC
continues to lead efforts to define AD/ADRD across the clinical spectrum. Biofluid biomarkers are critical to these
efforts, informing early changes in the development and progression of AD/ADRD, and supporting the etiologic
diagnosis of cognitive impairment. Synergy among the Biomarker, Clinical, Neuroimaging, and
Neuropathology Cores is also key to understanding multiple etiology dementias – the central theme of this
renewal application. In support of this goal, the Biomarker Core, together with the newly formed Genomics
Core, will systematically process, bank and distribute biospecimens from individuals with AD/ADRD, including
Lewy Body spectrum disorders and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), and will measure established and
emerging AD/ADRD-related biofluid biomarkers in ADRC participants. The latter will include comparisons of
various pTau217 assays for detecting AD neuropathologic change, and the development and validation of
assays for the detection of pathological aggregates of α-synuclein associated with Lewy body disease.
Furthermore, given our recent findings that functional loss of TDP-43 causes the retention of cryptic exons (CE)
in hundreds of transcripts, some of which generate de novo CE-harboring proteins detectable in cerebrospinal
fluid (CSF), we will evaluate the ability of CE-proteins to serve as surrogate biomarkers of TDP-43 pathology.
Discovery of a biomarker of TDP-43 pathology would inform its contributions to the clinical variability in
AD/ADRD, support accurate antemortem diagnoses of FTLD-TDP and FTLD-tau, and enable assignment of
patients with FTLD to clinical trials of investigational agents targeting TDP-43 or tau. The resources created by
the Clinical and Biomarker Cores, in concert with other Cores, will support biomarker evaluation in increasingly
diverse cohorts and underrepresented groups. Already, we have examined plasma AD biomarker profiles
(Aβ42/40, pTau181, GFAP, NfL) and their relationship to cognition and comorbidities in African American/Black
and non-Hispanic White participants. Acknowledging that structural and social determinants of health (SSDoH)
are fundamental drivers of AD/ADRD disparities, we will expand our studies and investigate the contribution of
race, additional SSDoH, and other health factors on AD/ADRD biomarkers. To accomplish these goals, the
Biomarker Core has assembled a team of investigators who have collectively undertaken comprehensive
biomarker studies evaluating the susceptibility/risk, diagnostic, prognostic and pharmacodynamic utility of
putative AD/ADRD biomarkers, and have devoted substantial effort towards biofluid ba...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10865856
- **Project number:** 2P30AG062677-06
- **Recipient organization:** MAYO CLINIC ROCHESTER
- **Principal Investigator:** LEONARD PETRUCELLI
- **Activity code:** P30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $357,585
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2019-07-01 → 2029-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10865856

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10865856, Biomarker Core (2P30AG062677-06). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10865856. Licensed CC0.

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