# Asian Cohort for Alzheimer's Disease (ACAD)

> **NIH NIH U19** · UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA · 2024 · $8,040,921

## Abstract

Overall Abstract
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) affects 5.8 million people in the United States and is an immense burden on our
economy, patients and caregivers. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have successfully led to 25
genome-wide significant loci associated with AD risk and many more associations with key clinical covariates.
Most of these findings are made on participants with European ancestry, although efforts to study other
minority populations are taking off. Knowledge about AD genetics among Asian Americans is especially limited
due to lack of participants. Comprising 6% of the US populace, Asian Americans are under-sampled and
deserve more scientific investment.
We propose the Asian Cohort for Alzheimer’s Disease (ACAD), the first large Alzheimer’s Disease (AD)
genetics cohort for Asians in United States (US) and Canada. To address recruitment barriers, we assembled
a team of scientists, clinicians, and community partners with collaborative history and expertise in AD research,
human genetics, and Asian community outreach. We propose to recruit 5,081 participants aged 60 years or
older and of Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese ancestry from metropolitan areas across US and Canada in
collaboration with community health providers or long-term care facilities that serve Asian communities. We
will collect DNA and plasma biomarkers and use validated, translated data collection forms and
clinical/diagnostic protocols. To support these recruitment and data collection activities, we will form six Cores
that provide administrative oversite, outreach, clinical expertise, data management, biosample management,
and training and quality assurance to support recruitment and analysis activities. All samples will be
genotyped using SNP arrays and imputed using a large Asian-specific reference panel of whole genome
sequencing data from international Asian cohorts. We propose two Research Projects that will analyze genetic,
biomarker and clinical data to investigate impact of lifestyle risk factors, genetic variants for AD risk, evaluate
differential effects of sex and APOE genotypes on AD risk, and predict clinical diagnosis of AD using genetic
and lifestyle risk scores. We will replicate these findings through meta-analysis collaborations with
international Asian cohorts and AD studies from other populations.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10878671
- **Project number:** 5U19AG079774-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
- **Principal Investigator:** HELENA Chang CHUI
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $8,040,921
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-07-01 → 2028-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10878671

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10878671, Asian Cohort for Alzheimer's Disease (ACAD) (5U19AG079774-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10878671. Licensed CC0.

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