# Dementia with Lewy Bodies Consortium

> **NIH NIH U01** · CLEVELAND CLINIC LERNER COM-CWRU · 2024 · $2,250,274

## Abstract

Project Summary
 It has been estimated that over 1.4 million people in the United States suffer from Lewy body
dementia (LBD), including both dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) or Parkinson's disease with dementia
(PDD). Patients with LBD suffer from cognitive decline, sometimes linked to Alzheimer's disease (AD),
and the motor and behavioral changes seen in Parkinson's disease (PD). Unfortunately, the diagnosis
of LBD can be difficult, particularly in those DLB patients that present with cognitive impairment prior to
motor or marked behavioral changes. While diagnostic biomarkers for LBD have been limited, recent
developments have suggested that determining Lewy body pathology (LBP) and AD pathology change
may be possible with biofluid biomarkers.
 Until recently, impediments to biomarker development in LBD have included small subject numbers, a
lack of systematic patient characterization and a failure to perform longitudinal follow up with autopsy.
Both AD and PD have benefited from a number of large “consortiums” that have advanced research by
leveraging the strengths of several groups of research centers to combine efforts with standardized
approaches to the study of the disease. One good example is the Alzheimer's Disease Centers (ADC)
program, funded by the National Institute on Aging, where over 30 research centers across the United
States have agreed to a standardized approach to the diagnosis and characterization of patients with
AD. Other similar programs include the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS), Alzheimer's
Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
(NINDS) Parkinson's Disease Biomarker Program (PDBP), and the Parkinson's Progression Marker
Initiative (PPMI). Fortunately, the latter two PD programs have included more systematic clinical
assessments and collection of biofluids and imaging data relevant to cognition in PD. Until funding of
the Dementia with Lewy Body Consortium (DLBC), no similar US-based program had existed.
 The objective of this DLBC renewal proposal is to utilize and expand the DLBC cohort with additional
subjects enrolled, continued longitudinal systematic assessments, collection of biofluids and imaging
data, and ultimately autopsy. As a more hypothesis-driven renewal proposal, the DLBC will utilize the
longitudinal data, imaging and biofluid collection from DLBC participants to focus on diagnosis,
progression and clinical variability. Two new Co-Principal Investigators and a number of new co-
investigators and collaborators will join the DLBC to enhance the additional focus on the new
hypothesis-driven aims.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10912457
- **Project number:** 5U01NS100610-08
- **Recipient organization:** CLEVELAND CLINIC LERNER COM-CWRU
- **Principal Investigator:** DOUGLAS R GALASKO
- **Activity code:** U01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $2,250,274
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-09-30 → 2025-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10912457

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10912457, Dementia with Lewy Bodies Consortium (5U01NS100610-08). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10912457. Licensed CC0.

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