Researchers at UTHealth Houston awarded $27 million to lead national Alzheimer’s data network using real-world data

A new $27.2 million grant awarded by the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health, will allow researchers at UTHealth Houston to lead a national initiative using real-world data to unlock discoveries about Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. 

The initiative, “Using Real-World Data to Derive Common Data Elements for Alzheimer’s Disease and AD-Related Dementias Research Through Ontological Innovation” (ReCARDO), will unite teams from 10 institutions: UTHealth Houston, Mayo Clinic, Rush University, University of Pennsylvania, Indiana University, University of Washington, University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of Florida, The University of Texas at San Antonio, and Vanderbilt University.

UTHealth Houston will serve as the central hub.

Real-world data is collected from everyday sources such as electronic health records, insurance claims, mobile apps, or wearable devices. This data is becoming critical to help researchers understand how treatments and health trends play out in real life. 

GQ Zhang, PhD, vice president and chief data scientist at UTHealth Houston; Hongfang Liu, PhD, vice president of learning health system at UTHealth Houston; and Licong Cui, PhD, associate professor at McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics at UTHealth Houston, are principal investigators of the grant.  

“UTHealth Houston is uniquely positioned to undertake this important initiative,” said Zhang, who is also co-director of the Texas Institute for Restorative Neurotechnologies, professor in the Department of Neurology at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, and the medical school’s Distinguished Chair in Digital Innovation. “Developing the resources to leverage real-world data is critical to empowering aging studies. It requires data scientists and researchers on aging across the country to team up and work together. At UTHealth Houston we have the highest concentration of data science, AI, informatics, neuroscience, and aging study expertise in a single institution, which can help move this initiative forward.”

Alzheimer’s disease impacts more than 7 million Americans  65 and older, according to the Alzheimer’s Association, with that number expected to rise sharply in the coming decades. 

“Alzheimer’s disease is a debilitating neurodegenerative disorder that impacts the patients, their family members, caregivers, and society at large. We hope this initiative can help accelerate progress in aging research, and with data-driven discovery we hope we can do it faster, cheaper, and more effectively,” Zhang said.

The team will focus on developing advanced artificial intelligence, natural language processing tools, and common data elements to make sharing and comparing data easier. They will then work to apply these tools to real-world data to help answer key questions about Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, ultimately accelerating progress toward better treatments and understanding of the disease.

“Leveraging real-world data for research is critical and exciting, as data-driven insights can be directly translated to real world impact,” said Liu, who is the D. Bradley McWilliams Chair, director for the Center for Translational AI Excellence and Applications in Medicine, and professor at McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics. “This award is critical because it’s going to position UTHealth Houston as the center in conducting state-of-the-art data science research related to real-world data.”  

“This is great teamwork bringing together collective expertise across the UTHealth Houston campus and partner institutions to accelerate real-world evidence generation in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia research,” said Cui, who is a member of Texas Institute for Restorative Neurotechnologies and the Center for Translational AI Excellence and Applications in Medicine.

“This award highlights the critical mass of data science, AI, and informatics expertise concentrated at UTHealth Houston,” said Jiajie Zhang, PhD, dean of McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics and The Glassell Family Foundation Distinguished Chair in Informatics Excellence. “As the home of the largest academic informatics program in the nation, McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics is proud to contribute to this collaborative effort — both within UTHealth Houston and across a remarkable consortium of leading institutions nationwide. This is exactly the kind of large-scale, team science initiative needed to drive real-world impact in Alzheimer’s research.”

Three additional principal investigators on the study include Ronald Petersen, MD, PhD, with Mayo Clinic; Zoe Arvanitakis, MD, MS, with Rush University; and Yong Chen, PhD, with the University of Pennsylvania. 

Co-investigator site leads on the ReCARDO team include Kun Huang, PhD, with Indiana University School of Medicine; Paul Crane, MD, MPH, with University of Washington; Jake Chen, PhD, with University of Alabama at Birmingham; Yonghui Wu, PhD, with the University of Florida; George Perry, PhD, with The University of Texas at San Antonio; and Alex Cheng, PhD, with Vanderbilt University.

Additional ReCARDO co-investigators from UTHealth Houston include: Paul Schulz, MD; Dennis Lal, PhD; Shiqiang Tao, PhD; Xiaojin Li, PhD; Yan Huang, PhD; and Rashmie Abeysinghe, PhD, with the Department of Neurology at McGovern Medical School. Degui Zhi, PhD; Xiaoqian Jiang, PhD; Amy Franklin, PhD; Toufeeq Ahmed Syed, PhD; Yejin Kim, PhD; Sunyang Fu, PhD; Jinlian Wang, PhD, with McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics. Carolyn Pickering, PhD, RN, and Mustafa Yildiz, PhD, from Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston. Cici Bauer, PhD; Trudy Krause, DrPH; Qian Xiao, PhD, MPH; and Youngran Kim, PhD, MPH, from UTHealth Houston School of Public Health.

This project is supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health under award number U24AG098157.