The ADNI project has an appointed Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) including leaders in industry and academic research on Alzheimer’s disease. The SAB members attend the annual ADNI Steering Committee Meeting and provide feedback and guidance on the study design and methodology.

The ADNI Private Partnership Scientific Board (PPSB), convened by the Alzheimer’s Association, serves as a forum for open dialogue with industry leaders as it relates to the project’s progress and new trends in research and development within the field of Alzheimer’s disease.

The ADNI PPSB was previously convened by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health.

The ADNI Data and Publications Committee (DPC), whose Principal Investigator is Robert C. Green, M.D., MPH, Professor of Medicine (Genetics) at Harvard Medical School. The DPC oversees ADNI publications, develops and proposes policy for data access and publication, screens all applications for access to ADNI data, and reviews all publications for adherence to ADNI publication policy guidelines.

The PET Core is directed by William Jagust, M.D., Professor of Public Health and Neuroscience and Susan Landau, PhD, Research Neuroscientist at the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, both at the University of California, Berkeley. Data made available through the PET Core includes both numerical summaries, and pre-and-post-processed PET images for major AD biomarkers (amyloid, tau). This Core works to develop standard methods of harmonization, and ensure quality control of data acquisition and analysis. The Core works with funded ADNI investigators, including Robert Koeppe, Ph.D., Gil Rabinovici, M.D., Victor L Villemagne, M.D., to distribute harmonized post-processed images and numeric summary data.

The Neuropathology Core is directed by Richard J. Perrin, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Pathology & Immunology at Washington University in St. Louis. This Core provides uniform comprehensive neuropathologic assessments of all brain donations from ADNI participants to inform biomarker discovery and validation studies. The Neuropathology Core also provides tissue specimens for use in approved studies.

John C. Morris, M.D. was the prior Neuropathology Core Leader from 2004-2023.

Nigel J. Cairns, Ph.D., FRCPath, was the Neurpathology Core Co-Leader from 2007-2018.

The MRI Core is directed by Clifford R. Jack, M.D., Professor of Radiology at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. The MRI Core creates and distributes standardized MRI acquisition protocols to each ADNI clinical site, oversees MRI site qualification and quality assurance and quality control to ensure consistency across sites and scanners. The MRI core is also responsible for tracking all MRI data acquisition, and ensuring the performance of data processing pipelines.

The Core works with funded ADNI investigators, including Petrice Cogswell, M.D., Charles S. DeCarli, M.D., Arvin Forghanian-Arani, Ph.D., Jeffrey Gunter, Ph.D., Nick Fox, M.D., Christopher Schwarz, Ph.D., Paul M. Thompson, Ph.D., Duygu Tosun, Ph.D., Paul A. Yushkevich, Ph.D., to distribute harmonized post-processed images and numeric summary data.

The Informatics Core is directed by Arthur W. Toga, Ph.D., Professor of Neurology at USC, and Director of the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging (LONI). This Core is responsible for de-identifying, archiving, and disseminating all clinical, biospecimen, genetic and imaging data including raw and processed MR and PET scans. The Informatics Core provides access to ADNI data via the Image and Data Archive (IDA) on LONI and shares information and resources with the wider research community.

The Genetics Core is directed by Andrew J. Saykin, Psy.D., Director of the Center for Neuroimaging and Indiana Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, at the Indiana University School of Medicine and Kwangsik Nho, PhD, Associate Professor of Radiology & Imaging Sciences. The Genetics Core oversees the banked genetic samples from the ADNI study subjects, which are housed at the National Centralized Repository for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (NCRAD) at Indiana University, and conducts genetic analyses. The Core focuses on advances in genetics and related -omics to discover, validate, and implement novel biomarkers that can improve the precision and power of AD clinical trials. They work to foster the discovery of novel targets for drug development and early disease detection.

The Engagement Core is co-directed by Ozioma Okonkwo, Ph.D., and Monica Rivera-Mindt, Ph.D.. Dr. Okonkwo is a Professor of Geriatrics in the Department of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Dr. Rivera-Mindt is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Neurology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and a Professor of Psychology at Fordham University. The Engagement Core was born out of the ADNI3 Diversity Task Force (DVTF) efforts, which was tasked with improving the recruitment and inclusion of people from underrepresented populations (URPs) into the ADNI3 study. The pressing need for improved diversity in clinical trials research requires a dedicated focus. The Engagement Core embodies ADNI’s commitment towards expanded representation of URPs within ADNI and ADRD research in general.

The Clinical Core is co-directed by Paul Aisen, M.D., Professor of Neurology and Director of the Alzheimer’s Therapeutic Research Institute at the University of Southern California (USC), and Ronald Petersen, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Neurology and Director of the Mayo Clinic’s Alzheimers Disease Research Center and the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging. The Clinical Core/Coordinating Center is based at the Alzheimer’s Therapeutic Research Institute (ATRI) at USC and manages the day-to-day clinical operations of ADNI. The Clinical Core oversees all clinical activities and contracts, manages clinical site-generated data systems including data tracking and quality control, aids in the recruitment and retention of participants, provides regulatory oversight, oversees financial management of site costs, conducts safety monitoring (including DSMB reporting), and creates the final “locked dataset” for each phase of the ADNI study.

For ADNI4, the participant amyloid disclosure process was designed in collaboration with Jason Karlawish, M.D., Claire Erickson, Ph.D., Joshua Grill, Ph.D., Kristin Harkins, MPH, and Emily Largent, Ph.D..

The Biostatistics Core is co-directed by Laurel Beckett, Ph.D., Professor Emerita, Department of Public Health Sciences at University of California Davis, and Danielle Harvey, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences at University of California Davis. The Biostatistics Core provides specific expertise related to the ADNI data, including navigating the database, changes in data acquisition across the phases of ADNI, and working with the data files. This Core interacts with biostatisticians and other quantitative researchers from academia and industry who are interested in ADNI data. In addition, the Biostatistics Core develops statistical methods and conducts analyses utilizing data that span the ADNI Cores.

The Biofluid Biomarker Core is directed by Leslie Shaw, Ph.D., and Dr. Edward B. Lee, M.D., Ph.D., at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Shaw directs the Biomarker Research Laboratory at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. Dr. Lee is a an Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The Biomarker Core oversees the bank of biological fluids from the ADNI study subjects and conducts studies of selected AD biomarkers.

John Trojanowski, M.D., Ph.D, previously co-led the Biomarker Core from 2004-2022.

The Administrative Core, directed by Michael Weiner, M.D., oversees all aspects of ADNI, including grant writing, monitoring the scientific aspects of ADNI data collection, and all budgetary aspects of the project. In ADNI4, the Administrative Core oversees the online data collection for the Remote Digital and Blood Cohorts (screening cohorts) as well as the online data collection for the Remote Longitudinal Monitoring of the In-Clinic Cohort. Resulting data will be included as part of the ADNI data available on LONI. The Administrative Core responds to many questions and inquiries concerning ADNI and is committed to the open sharing of ADNI data without embargo. The Admin Core includes co-investigators Rachel Nosheny, Ph.D., and Bruce Albala, Ph.D.

Project 1 is directed by Duygu Tosun, Ph.D., Professor of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging at the University of California, San Francisco and the Founding Director of Medical Imaging Informatics and Artificial Intelligence at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Project 1 is new to the ADNI4 phase of the study. Project 1 aims to comprehensively assess the roles of imaging and fluid biomarkers for detecting the AD pathology states and stages, monitoring disease progression, and will develop a comprehensive platform that includes both analytic and simulation tools.

The National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health, supports ADNI through grant 5U19AG024904. ADNI is governed by a Steering Committee comprised of the PI, all Core leaders, representatives of the NIH and FDA, and representatives of the companies contributing funding (observers only). The ADNI Steering Committee Meeting takes place annually in the Spring.