ADRC Brain Bank
The ADRC maintains an active brain bank to facilitate the acquisition, storage, handling and distribution of well-characterized autopsy brain tissue and other materials to investigators. Due to a close relationship with the Emory Center for Neurodegenerative Disease, the ADRC also has access to tissues and samples related to other neurodegenerative diseases as described below.
If you would like to place an official order/request for tissue samples, click
here for the otder form.
Brain and Tissue Bank
Frozen Tissue: ~325 autopsy brains including AD, PD, tauopathy , Huntington's disease, other neurodegenerative diseases, and controls
Brain Biopsies: ~30 frozen specimens and ~50 paraffin blocks including AD, PD collected during pallidotomy surgery, tauopathy , Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and other diagnoses
Formalin Fixed Tissue: ~570 cases of AD, PD, tauopathy , Huntington's disease, and Paraffin Blocks other neurodegenerative diseases, and controls
Plasma Samples: ~3000 samples from patients with AD and other neurodegenerative diseases and control subjects enrolled in the Clinical Research in Neurology Registry
DNA Bank
Buffy Coat Isolates and DNA Extracts from Buffy Coats: ~3000 samples from patients with AD and other neurodegenerative diseases and control subjects enrolled in the Clinical Research in Neurology Registry
DNA Extracts from Autopsy Tissue: ~300 cases of AD and other neurodegenerative diseases and 150 institutional "control" cases
Cerebrospinal Fluid
In collaboration with the Emory Center for Neurodegenerative Disease, we have access to a growing collection of cerebral spinal fluid samples from over 170 patients with a variety of neurological diagnoses including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. These frozen samples and the associated neurobehavioral and other patient data records are a valuable resource and may be requested for appropriate research studies.
Lymphoblast Repository
The ADRC, Center for Neurodegenerative Disease and the Emory Department of Neurology Department work together to maintain a large and rapidly expanding DNA Bank and Lymphoblast Repository. Plasma is also stored. The biological samples are associated with well-characterized patients with dementia, movement disorders, sleep disorders, stroke, neuromuscular disorders and other nervous system diseases as well as healthy control subjects. Many different types of studies can be conducted using these samples, including genetic association and linkage studies, genotype/phenotype studies, analysis of clinical phenotype categorizations, and mRNA protein analysis studies.
The majority of DNA Bank and Lymphoblast Repository participants are patients treated by Emory Department of Neurology physicians. These patients have diagnoses of various memory and movement disorders, including Probable Alzheimer's Disease, Frontotemporal Dementia and Parkinson's Disease, as well as diagnoses of Stroke, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, and Restless Leg Syndrome. Additional participants in these depositories include community members with the aforementioned disorders, family members of participants with these disorders, and controls. As of the summer of 2004, we have about 1500 individual lymphoblast lines stored, 3000 samples of DNA stored and 3000 samples of plasma stored.
Investigators interested in getting more information about the Lymphoblast Repository should contact Ami Rosen at 404/728-4956 or
arosen3@emory.edu
Our database, established in the late 1990s, retains extensive clinical information about our ADRC Clinical Core patients as well as the many other subjects with neurological diseases seen in the Neurology Department over a number of years. As of December, 2007, there are roughly 8,300 subjects in this database who have a specific clinical diagnosis. There are another 600 subjects in this database whose diagnoses are still being reviewed. This includes about 1700 subjects with a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, 600 subjects with mild cognitive impairment, 170 subjects with frontotemporal dementia, 140 subjects with vascular dementia, 90 subjects with Lewy body dementia, 560 subjects with dementia (unspecified), 800 subjects with Parkinson’s disease, 100 subjects with essential tremor, 90 subjects with Tourette syndrome, 475 subjects with restless legs syndrome and/or periodic leg movements, 520 subjects with stroke, 370 subjects with epilepsy/seizures, 300 subjects with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, 800 control subjects with no reported neurological disease, 600 more control subjects who were enrolled as parts of family cohorts, and about 800 subjects who belong to less common diagnostic groups.
In addition to clinical information, we collect basic demographics, medical history (including risk factors such as smoking), and a detailed family history from all of these subjects. Vital status is available through the end of 2004. For many we have some neuropsychological measures; most have an MMSE and clock drawing, for example. The majority of subjects in our database have only one visit. However, about 900 of these subjects (of which about 200 are controls) have been or are seen longitudinally and complete at each visit some neuropsychological testing and a neurological exam as well as an interview that captures new medical and family history.
There are over 2,500 variables in our database, not all of which are available for each subject. To facilitate data use for research, we have put together a Summary Database which contains about 150 of the most commonly requested variables. A data dictionary describing the variables in the Summary Database is available upon request as are descriptions of additional variables in the database.
If you would like to request some of these data for research studies, either in conjunction with a biospecimen request or with a subject recruitment request, or by itself, please contact Ami Rosen at 404/728-4956 or arosen3@emory.edu.