A picture of Lindsey Kuchenbecker, a Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences 2nd year graduate student in Dr. Carrasquillo’s lab, standing by her poster at the Translational Science 2024 Conference, where she presented initial results from data analyses funded by the CADF award.
The grant supports a critical research project focused on the identification of accurate and accessible, minimally invasive blood-based biomarkers that will improve management and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. As part of this goal, the research team proposes to conduct a study that could potentially identify proteins in blood which can serve as accurate biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease. The study as currently proposed will focus on a cohort of over 500 African American study participants who were evaluated by a Mayo Clinic neurologist and donated blood samples for research. The rationale for focusing on an African American cohort is that this population has double the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease compared to non-Hispanic Whites and has been vastly underrepresented in Alzheimer’s disease research.
The methods proposed focus on plasma proteins as biomarkers because these methods only require a simple blood draw, followed by validated protein measurements and state of the art analytical approaches to determine which proteins serve as the most accurate predictors of the disease. The knowledge gained from this study will not only improve the accessibility to an accurate diagnosis but will also increase the enrollment of this population that is underrepresented in clinical trials, and thereby ensure the development of treatments that are effective in this population.
