Our Connections to Alzheimer’s Research

Research is vital to making advances in care for patients with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.

Our relationship with the University of Southern California (USC)—including its Keck School of Medicine and the larger community of USC researchers—allows us to connect the work we do at Rancho/USC California Alzheimer’s Disease Center to the most current knowledge and science available.

Our center is closely connected with the USC Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC), one of the network of centers funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Aging (NIH/NIA). We’re dedicated to conducting research aimed at:

• increasing our knowledge and understanding of these devastating diseases
• finding their biological causes
• discovering better treatments
• creating medications to stop the disease progression
• learning how to prevent Alzheimer’s and related diseases

Our clinical staff of the Rancho/USC CADC are members of USC ADRC and also faculty at USC.

Research Studies

We encourage every patient and family to consider participation in research. Even if you haven’t been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or other dementias, you can still help.

Research opportunities exist for people who have:

• Alzheimer’s or other dementias; or
• early, mild changes in memory and thinking; or
• a parent or sibling who has, or had, Alzheimer’s disease or a related disorder

There’s even a current Alzheimer’s prevention research study open for people ages 60-75 with no changes in memory or thinking ability.

If you’re interested in participating in a research study, we’ll connect you directly with studies being conducted locally at USC, through USC Keck School of Medicine, and with other researchers throughout the university.

In the meantime, you can begin to learn about USC research studies by visiting the USC ADRC research page to see current studies.

Participation

To learn if participating in an Alzheimer’s research study is right for you, take this online assessment provided by the National Institute on Aging.

Clinical Trials

Clinical trials are a type of research study that involves the final phase of testing new medications.

Since there are currently no medications that can either stop or prevent Alzheimer’s disease, participation in clinical trials is extremely important. Clinical trials are the pathway to finding medicines that will become the treatments of the future.

Learn more about clinical trials

All clinical trials taking place in the United States are listed at ClinicalTrials.Gov. Through this link, you can explore opportunities for clinical trials and find out how to participate.