Diverse Autopsy Cohort and Brain Banking

What this project does
Builds and maintains a diverse, well-characterized autopsy cohort that includes ADRC participants, additional ADRD cases, and neurologically normal controls.

Why it matters clinically
Autopsy remains the gold standard for diagnosis and is essential for understanding mixed pathologies, validating biomarkers, and explaining clinical variability.

Key activities
-Perform timely autopsies on ADRC participants and other well-documented cases
-Accrue ≥25–30 autopsies per year across sites, with ≥40% from underrepresented groups
-Collect and bank brain tissue (fixed and frozen), CSF, blood, DNA, and other tissues
-Provide autopsy reports to families and clinical teams
-Partner with the ORE Core to support brain donation education and outreach

What will be delivered
-A growing, diverse autopsy cohort
-High-quality, banked tissue linked to longitudinal clinical data

Who this helps
-Clinicians seeking diagnostic confirmation
-Families and caregivers
-Researchers studying disease mechanisms