# STAGING PRECLINICAL AD WITH CSF BIOMARKERS

> **NIH NIH K23** · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $157,127

## Abstract

Staging preclinical Alzheimer disease with CSF biomarkers
Career development plan
 I have been interested in Alzheimer's disease (AD) since high school. I did research on AD in college,
completed a PhD in Neurosciences focused on AD, underwent medical training and a neurology residency,
and became a dementia specialist. I currently see patients with memory problems in the clinic, perform clinical
assessments for AD research and assist with two drug trials for prevention of AD. Although my research
background was in a wet lab doing basic neuroscience, at the end of 2015 I decided to make a major career
change to align my clinical training and research interests. I have been learning new skills, including statistical
analysis, so that I can perform meaningful clinical research. I still have much to learn and would benefit
tremendously from a four year mentored career development award.
 There is a major need in the AD field for a test that reliably predicts if and when cognitively normal
individuals will develop AD dementia. I believe that I am uniquely positioned to investigate this topic. I am a
junior faculty member at Washington University's Knight Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC), which
has one of the largest and best characterized repositories of AD cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma in the
world. My mentors include Dr. John Morris, a world expert on longitudinal clinical research studies of AD, and
Dr. Anne Fagan, a leader in CSF biomarkers of AD. I have assembled a group of collaborators, at Washington
University and at other institutions, with expertise in clinical chemistry, statistics, brain imaging, and cognitive
testing. All these individuals will serve to advise and guide me as I develop my skills and experience.
 I have formulated a training plan that will increase my knowledge of fluid biomarkers, statistics and
statistical computing, imaging, and psychometrics. Training activities include formal coursework, conferences,
meetings and seminars. The research plan I have detailed will provide opportunities to measure emerging
biomarkers in CSF samples, perform complex statistical analyses of biomarker levels, learn about the
generation of various types of brain imaging measures and evaluate performance on multiple cognitive tests.
At the conclusion of the four year career development award, I expect to be a skilled, multidisciplinary
investigator with independent funding and an independent research program.
Research plan
We propose to develop and validate a staging system for preclinical Alzheimer disease (AD) using a
panel of seven cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers. Improved staging of preclinical AD would be helpful to
clinicians and patients who desire to know their risk for development of AD dementia within the next 20, 10, 5
or 2 years. Further, more precise staging of preclinical AD in clinical drug trials would allow refinement of
enrollment criteria and determination of when treatments are most effective at slowi...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9910355
- **Project number:** 5K23AG053426-04
- **Recipient organization:** WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Suzanne Elizabeth Schindler
- **Activity code:** K23 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $157,127
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-07-15 → 2021-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9910355

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9910355, STAGING PRECLINICAL AD WITH CSF BIOMARKERS (5K23AG053426-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9910355. Licensed CC0.

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