# Core D: Neuropathology Core

> **NIH NIH P30** · UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY · 2020 · $267,305

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract: Neuropathology Core
The overall objective of the Neuropathology Core of the University of Kentucky Alzheimer’s Disease Center
(UK-ADC) is to support research on normal brain aging, presymptomatic Alzheimer’s disease (pAD), mild
cognitive impairment (MCI), early and late AD, mixed dementia syndromes, and other dementing disorders.
Autopsies will be performed by our Rapid Autopsy Team on longitudinally followed subjects from our Clinical
Core. We will perform short post-mortem interval autopsies in relation to our clinical cohort, and we will
maintain a high autopsy rate. This Core is optimally tailored to help address important research questions.
The Core will provide brain tissue specimens, CSF and synaptosomes for investigators at UK, other ADCs,
and outside investigators. The Core will also provide consensus conference determined diagnoses,
quantitation of neurofibrillary tangles (NFT), neuritic plaques, and diffuse plaques from 8 brain regions, Aβ 1-40
and 1-42 quantitation, Braak staging, CERAD, and NIA-Reagan Institute staging on all autopsied cases to
investigators. This brain bank has been operating continuously for over three decades with a strong track
record, so special care will be taken to ensure diagnostic excellence, consistency, and continuity. The Core
will maintain a tissue bank of the above specimens and frozen serum, plasma, buffy coats and CSF from living
patients. Special emphasis will be placed on defining the neuropathological findings in the brains of the oldest
old (>85 years), and providing investigators with specimens from cognitively intact control subjects with no Aβ
deposition and sparse tau pathology (successful cerebral aging) and also cognitively intact subjects with
abundant plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. Providing these samples will contribute to clinical-pathological
correlation studies and cutting-edge research that include sponsored studies related to AD genomics, oxidative
stress, hippocampal sclerosis, dementia with Lewy bodies, amyloid precursor protein processing, Down
syndrome, and neuroinflammation. Frequent consensus conferences will be held with the Clinical Core and
Biostatistics Core to help define clinical-pathological diagnoses on all autopsied subjects. This Core is strongly
integrated with other Cores of the UK-ADC, and exploits unique opportunities to conduct clinical-pathological
correlative studies on longitudinally followed subjects. Through these methods we will better understand
normal brain aging and the transition to dementia with the focused goal of contributing to therapeutic or
preventive measures.
 The Neuropathology Core complements the other Cores of the UK-ADC to provide extremely essential
diagnoses and tissue samples that are required for many cutting-edge researchers at the University of
Kentucky and elsewhere. We will build on our track record of excellence using innovative tools related to brain
autopsies, neuropathological diagnoses, tissue b...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9976438
- **Project number:** 5P30AG028383-15
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY
- **Principal Investigator:** PETER T. NELSON
- **Activity code:** P30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $267,305
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9976438

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9976438, Core D: Neuropathology Core (5P30AG028383-15). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9976438. Licensed CC0.

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