Jefferson Kinney, PhD

"There are some great imaging biomarkers that can be done for amyloid and tau, but the imaging markers present a challenge in terms of cost. How those are used diagnostically is still a work in progress. But I think a combination of these 2 approaches becomes really productive and something that we’re striving for in the center.”

Since the early 2000s, the advances in biomarker testing have allowed clinicians to detect and diagnose Alzheimer disease (AD) and other related dementias more accurately. Given that no single biomarker test alone has been proven to diagnose the condition, the available biomarkers are often used in conjunction. While biomarkers have become an important part of research and hold critical value in the future of AD drug development, there has been no consensus as to which biomarkers hold the most value.

Jefferson Kinney, PhD, will be co-leading a collaboration between University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) and 

 Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health that aims to enhance neuroscience research infrastructure. A recently awarded grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will help power phase 2 of the project, which will focus on developing biomarker, imaging, and clinical research capabilities, among other objectives. Kinney, founding chair of the Department of Brain Health at UNLV, claims that figuring out the "gold standard” biomarker is still something that escapes the field.

, Kinney disclosed which biomarkers will be evaluated in the upcoming project, along with the need for the community to pare down the amount of biomarkers and come to an agreement on which hold the most clinical value. He stressed that using biomarkers will be the true way to assess treatment effect and thus further advance drug development.

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The founding chair of the department of brain health at the University of Nevada Las Vegas discussed the plethora of Alzheimer disease biomarkers and the need for consensus on the value of each. [WATCH TIME: 3 minutes]

Assessing, Validating Clinically Relevant Biomarkers for Alzheimer Disease: Jefferson Kinney, PhD

"What we’ll do is maintain that cohort as well as some core resources that we built during phase 1. But in phase 2, we now add two more core resources to Southern Nevada to enhance research capability. Those are an imaging core as well as expansion of biomarker discovery as part of the Center for Neurodegeneration."

 Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), announced a newly awarded grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund phase 2 of their first Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE), the Center for Neurodegeneration and Translational Neuroscience (CNTN). The grant, totaling $11.3 million, will be used towards developing the resources and processes necessary to achieve a long-term sustainable neuroscience research infrastructure. 

Led by Aaron Ritter, MD, of the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, and Jefferson Kinney, PhD, of UNLV, the 5-year continuation of the COBRE award aims more specifically to foster infrastructure development, develop biomarker, imaging and clinical research capabilities, develop careers for CNTN investigators, and stimulate research productivity. The grant will also help launch a pilot project program, which will allow an opportunity for researchers who aren’t a part of the center to capitalize on the resources available to ask their own questions.

Phase 2 builds upon the efforts of the 2 centers, which consisted of creating a Brain Imaging Department, creating a community advisory board to help recruit a diverse research participation population, and developing a research cohort, among others, during phase 1. Kinney, the founding chair of the Department of Brain Health in the School of Integrated Sciences at UNLV, sat down with 

® to discuss the newly awarded grant, how it will be utilized, and how it expands on what was previously developed in phase 1.

The founding chair of the department of brain health at the University of Nevada Las Vegas provided background on how a newly funded NIH grant will contribute to translational neuroscience research infrastructure. [WATCH TIME: 3 minutes]

Jefferson Kinney, PhD

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Assessing, Validating Clinically Relevant Biomarkers for Alzheimer Disease: Jefferson Kinney, PhD

Building Research on Neurodegeneration and Developing Future Researchers: Jefferson Kinney, PhD

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