SACRAMENTO — The UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center, which investigates the causes and trajectories of cognitive aging and risk for late-life dementia, has received renewed grant funding of $6.9 million from the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health.

The five-year grant renewal is the fifth for the center. Established in 1991, the center has been funded continuously by the National Institute on Aging to study the complex factors affecting cognitive functioning in aging for the past 20 years. The center’s new grant begins Friday.

The Alzheimer’s Disease Center’s research focuses on understanding the wide array of ways that brain aging progresses in a population of highly diverse patients, uncovering how these factors affect dementia risk and discovering new insights that may lead to the development of novel treatments.

The center follows more than 500 research subjects and evaluates more than 200 new subjects each year. In addition to research participation, the center offers state-of-the-art diagnostics, treatment recommendations, patient-management assistance and caregiver support.

“There are a wide variety of protective conditions and risk factors that can combine to result in widely varying trajectories of cognitive aging,” said Charles DeCarli, professor of neurology and center director. “Understanding why is central to research that has both scientific significance and clinical relevance, including relevance for potential treatment.”

The UCD Alzheimer’s Disease Center is one of only 29 research centers designated by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging. The center’s goal is to translate research advances into improved diagnosis and treatment for patients while focusing on the long-term goal of finding a way to prevent or cure Alzheimer’s disease.

Also funded by the state of California, the center allows researchers to study the effects of the disease on a uniquely diverse population. For more information, visit http://alzheimer.ucdavis.edu.

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