UTSW designated as North Texas Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center
Funding from the National Institute on Aging will support initiatives including research studies, community outreach, and training
DALLAS – Sept. 2, 2025 – The National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), recently funded the North Texas Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) to be based at UT Southwestern Medical Center, in collaboration with UT Dallas and UT Arlington.
A long history of innovative research and high-quality clinical care on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias in North Texas laid the groundwork for this grant. The five-year award, expected to total $23 million, will fund initiatives to investigate the basic mechanisms underlying these diseases and clinical interventions for diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment.
ADRCs, established in 1984, are congressionally designated NIH Centers of Excellence funded by the NIA. They provide resources, support, and research opportunities to advance efforts against Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. The mission of the ADRCs includes improving detection, diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and care for patients and families. Each center has a unique theme tailored to its local population and scientific priorities.
“Being named an ADRC is not only an indication of scientific excellence, but also highlights an intentional commitment to research Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive impairment in our community,” said the Center’s Principal Investigator, Ihab Hajjar, M.D., Professor of Neurology and Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern and in the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute.
The North Texas ADRC, one of two in Texas and 37 in the U.S., will have the general mission of enabling ongoing and new research in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias; facilitating ideas and approaches that accelerate the discovery of novel treatments and contributing risk factors; enhancing scientific and clinical collaborations locally and nationally; and creating education opportunities for researchers, clinicians, learners, and the North Texas community focused on caregivers.
The Center’s emphasis will be to advance the national research agenda on Alzheimer’s disease by exploring cardiometabolic factors that contribute to the disease and related dementias, particularly high blood pressure – a condition also known as hypertension that affects nearly 120 million Americans.
Another pursuit will be harnessing the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to make discoveries. For example, Dr. Hajjar said, the Center plans to use AI voice analysis to discover vocal changes that accompany cognitive decline. Researchers also plan to use “digital twin” technology to develop virtual representations of patients that will help decipher factors that are part of normal aging and those associated with dementias.
The North Texas ADRC will be based at UT Southwestern not only because of its research prowess in various forms of dementia – a focus of the Department of Neurology as well as the O’Donnell Brain Institute, established a decade ago – but also for its location, Dr. Hajjar said. As the country’s second-most populous state, Texas has the third-most Alzheimer’s disease patients, the second-most Alzheimer’s-related deaths, and the highest dementia burden score, a measure used to assess the emotional and psychological impact of caregiving for individuals with dementia.
The other ADRC in Texas is a collaboration between UT Health San Antonio and The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
Dr. Hajjar said research generated by all the centers will contribute to communal datasets that will be publicly available, spurring collaboration and speeding discoveries that will provide hope to patients with dementia and their loved ones.
“Through our ADRC, we have the chance to make an unprecedented leap in understanding and treating Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias,” Dr. Hajjar said.
William T. Dauer, M.D., Director of the O’Donnell Brain Institute and Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience, said of the new Center, “This designation reflects the power of bringing together outstanding scientists, clinicians, and community partners to tackle one of the most urgent societal challenges. It will strengthen our ability to link discoveries from O’Donnell Brain Institute laboratories with the needs of patients and families in North Texas and beyond, accelerating progress against Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.”
Elan D. Louis, M.D., M.S., Chair and Professor of Neurology and an Investigator in the O’Donnell Brain Institute, said, “Our new ADRC reflects a growing emphasis in the Department of Neurology on learning about, understanding, and treating a group of disorders that affect millions of elderly people nationwide.”
UT Southwestern is ranked No. 9 for Neurology & Neurosurgery on U.S. News & World Report’s annual Best Hospitals list. UTSW has 12 nationally ranked specialties, the most of any hospital in Texas.
Dr. Dauer holds the Lois C.A. and Darwin E. Smith Distinguished Chair in Neurological Mobility Research. Dr. Hajjar holds the Pogue Family Distinguished University Chair in Alzheimer's Disease Clinical Research and Care, in Memory of Maurine and David Weigers McMullan. Dr. Louis holds the Linda and Mitch Hart Distinguished Chair in Neurology.
About UT Southwestern Medical Center
UT Southwestern, one of the nation’s premier academic medical centers, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution’s faculty members have received six Nobel Prizes and include 24 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 23 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 13 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The full-time faculty of more than 3,200 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians provide care in more than 80 specialties to more than 140,000 hospitalized patients, more than 360,000 emergency room cases, and oversee nearly 5.1 million outpatient visits a year.