The Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) is excited to share that Rachael Wilson, PhD, has been selected as its newest Developmental Project awardee for her project, “Development of a multiplex immunoassay panel for the detection of Alzheimer's disease and common co-pathologies.”
The goal of Wilson’s project is to develop a blood test to detect diseases that often mimic or co-occur with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), enabling disease-specific treatments. These diseases include frontotemporal dementia (FTD), Lewy Body Disease (LBD), and Limbic-predominant Age-related TDP-43 Encephalopathy (LATE). Unlike AD, there are no imaging or blood tests for detecting the abnormal proteins that cause these diseases in living people, and physicians must rely on clinical symptoms to make a diagnosis. This is exceptionally difficult because these diseases share a lot of common symptoms with AD and with each other.
“So many people suffer from these diseases, and there are currently no disease-modifying therapies. This is in part due to the difficulty in identifying who has which disease, or more than one,” Wilson said. “If we can find a way to do this, it will lead to a better understanding of the disease and targeted treatments, both of which are urgently needed.”
Wilson is a fluid biomarker scientist at the Wisconsin ADRC Biomarker Lab and a co-investigator in the Wisconsin ADRC Biomarker Core.
About the Developmental Project Award
The Wisconsin ADRC Developmental Project Award offers up to $120,000 to support a feasibility study targeting Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) research. Proposals may range from basic or biomedical research to translational, epidemiological, caregiving or social behavioral research. Funding is available to all researchers within the University of Wisconsin–Madison, with priority given to early-stage faculty and postdoctoral trainees.
