Neurology

Below are current clinical trials.

Filter this list of studies by location, status and more.

1. Arizona Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC-001)

   Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz.

   There is evidence that neurodegenerative changes precede clinical symptoms in Alzheimer’s disease by two decades (Villemagne et al, 2013). Early detection is critical for development of interventions to halt, slow, or even reverse these pathological processes. The promise of plasma biomarkers to identify early pathology is growing rapidly (Palmqvist et al, 2020), however it is likely that multiple converging biomarkers will be necessary to identify the earliest pathological changes, as subtle differences from healthy controls may fall within the margin of error for any given single biomarker measure. Here we propose that the evaluation of speech and language for both baseline (cross-sectional) and longitudinal changes (within-participant) may add significant value to early pre-clinical pathological changes in MCI and AD. This is bolstered by emerging evidence of the relationship between language characteristics and amyloid burden (Verfaillie et al, 2019) and the large literature that characterizes language-use differences and deficits across the spectrum of cognitive decline (e.g., Mueller et al, 2018). We propose to add a series of in-clinic language elicitation tasks that allow for automated assessment of relevant speech and language domains and to validate these measures cross-sectionally and longitudinally relevant to neuropsychological, blood, and PET biomarkers.

2. Human Blood and Tissues Repository for Neuroscience Research

   Jacksonville, Fla.

   The purpose of this study is to collect adult human blood, cerebrospinal fluid, brain, and spine tissues/fluids at time of surgery in order to conduct future studies of the cellular mechanisms of tissue invasion utilized by brain and spine tumors of the central nervous system (CNS).

3. Magnetic Resonance Elastography of Dementia

   Rochester, Minn.

   The purpose of this study is to develop and test the effectiveness of an investigational imaging technique called magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) to measure the stiffness (mechanical properties) of tissues.

4. EMU

   Jacksonville, Fla.

   The purpose of this study is to demonstrate haemorrhage detection sensitivity >80% and specificity >80%.

5. A Study to Evaluate Sex and Gender in Multiple System Atrophy

   Rochester, Minn.

   The primary purpose of this study is to understand the influence of sex and gender on pathophysiologic mechanisms of neurodegeneration in Multiple System Atrophy (MSA) in order to determine sex-specific hormonal factors associated with onset of symptoms in MSA.

6. Blood and Spinal Fluid Collection for Research Studies in Motor Neuron Disease and Motor Neuropathy

   Rochester, Minn.

   The purpose of this study is so that blood (plasma and blood cells) and/or extra spinal fluid (which was taken for clinical purposes) can be obtained and stored for later research on a large cohort of patients with progressive motor neuronopathies and neuropathies, many of which will be determined to suffer from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). 

7. Advanced Care Planning in Dementia

   Jacksonville, Fla.

   The goal of this study is to gain a better understanding of the status of advanced care planning among caregivers of patients with dementia and examine how this differs by race and disease stage.

8. Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network (DIAN)

   Jacksonville, Fla.

   The purpose of this study is to identify potential biomarkers that may predict the development of Alzheimer's disease in people who carry an Alzheimer's mutation.

9. Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarkers For Brain Tumors

   Rochester, Minn.

   The purpose of this study is to help generate a repository of Cerebrospinal  Fluid (CSF) samples relevant to neuro-oncology research that may facilitate the identification of biomarkers that are predictive of disease burden, therapeutic susceptibility or response to therapy. This protocol will also provide a vehicle for CSF access for patients or providers wishing to generate or evaluate individualized biomarkers as part of other research or individualized therapy protocols.

10. Multiscale EEG Dynamics

    Rochester, Minn., Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz.

    The purpose if this study  to combine state of the art cerebral signal processing techniques and localization methods with intracranial electrode recordings to investigate the interaction of local hippocampal and neocortical networks with distributed brain activity.