# NCANDA: Data Analysis Resource - Upgrading Computer System

> **NIH NIH U24** · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $149,813

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
In response to PA-20-272, this supplement requests funds to upgrade the computer infrastructure of the
Scalable Informatics for Biomedical Imaging Studies (SIBIS). SIBIS has been daily used by National
Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence to Adulthood (NCANDA-A) since it started
recruiting its 831 participants in 2013. NCANDA-A annually acquires data on these participants (age 12 to 21
years at baseline) across 5 sites. Each site uses SIBIS web applications for data acquisition (e.g., self-reported
questionnaires) or upload (e.g. MRI, DTI, resting state fMRI). The data are then managed, quality controlled,
harmonized, analyzed, and distributed by the NCANDA-A Data Analysis Resource (DAR) via SIBIS.
NCANDA-A has 4 main aims. With respect to Aim 1, the consortium has been investigating the impact of
excessive alcohol drinking during adolescence and emerging adulthood on subsequent developmental
trajectories of cognitive performance, brain structure and function, and psychopathology. For Aim 2, NCANDA-
A identifies neurodevelopment patterns describing the extent to which alcohol’s effects on brain structure and
function resolve or persist during desistance after binge drinking. Aim 3 focuses on data-driven analysis to
identify adolescent biological, environmental, and behavioral factors (e.g., age of drinking onset) that forecast
excessive drinking during early adulthood. Regarding Aim 4, NCANDA-A has been quantifying the impact of
the COVID pandemic on life stress and social, emotional, and economic wellbeing and their relations with
alcohol use patterns. For each aim, sex differences in development, alcohol use patterns and history, impact of
alcohol use on the brain, and sex-differentiating psychosocial factors are tested.
The DAR, whose mPIs are Drs. Pohl and Pfefferbaum, manages the data in line with five aims. Aim D1
ensures that procedures for collection and quality control of neuroimaging, neuropsychological, and clinical
assessment data are standardized. For Aim D2, the DAR has been advancing the existing informatics
infrastructure for integrating data collected across all sites. Aim D3 targets enhancing macrostructural,
microstructural, and functional neuroimage processing and analysis. Regarding Aim D4, the DAR creates
machine (deep) learning frameworks identifying predictive markers of early adulthood drinking. Finally, for Aim
D5, they maintain data sharing and distribution systems for consortium PIs and the scientific public at large.
The DAR has been supporting these aims in part with a computer infrastructure that was purchased over 10
years ago. Within the next 12 months, this hardware will be insufficient for preserving the high level of security
and fulfill the computational and storage needs of NCANDA. The DAR therefore requests funding for upgrading
the computer infrastructure of SIBIS (Aim S1). Continuing the stable management of data will be central for
NCANDA to continue with thoroughly tr...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11094633
- **Project number:** 3U24AA021697-13S1
- **Recipient organization:** STANFORD UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Adolf Pfefferbaum
- **Activity code:** U24 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $149,813
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2012-09-15 → 2027-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11094633

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11094633, NCANDA: Data Analysis Resource - Upgrading Computer System (3U24AA021697-13S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11094633. Licensed CC0.

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