A detailed map of brain cells in Alzheimer's and related dementias
Official title: A multimodal brain cell atlas and community resource of Alzheimer's disease and comorbid dementias.
Funded at Allen Institute · NIH-11095671 · Data updated 2026-11-12
Building a comprehensive, publicly shared map of how brain cell types and their molecular signatures change in people with Alzheimer's and related dementias to help researchers find new targets and tests.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Allen Institute NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Seattle, United States) |
| Project start | March 1, 2020 |
| Project end | August 31, 2030 |
| Funding year | 2025 |
| Award (this year) | $14,713,224 |
| NIH project number | 2U19AG060909-06A1 |
| Project ID | NIH-11095671 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Adults diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease or related dementias, and people willing to donate brain tissue or clinical data, are the primary sources of material for this work.
✕Less likely to help
People looking for immediate changes to their clinical care or direct treatment benefits are unlikely to gain direct benefit from this resource in the short term.
What this research studies
From a patient's perspective, this project creates a detailed map showing which brain cells change during Alzheimer's and other dementias. Scientists analyze donated postmortem human brain tissue using single-cell and spatial genomics methods (for example, RNA profiling and ATAC-seq) to see cell-type specific molecular and epigenetic patterns across brain regions and stages of disease. The team will combine these multimodal datasets into an open-access atlas and tools so researchers everywhere can explore the data. The work builds on prior SEA-AD efforts and expands to include comorbid dementias and broader reference data from the BRAIN Initiative.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, the atlas could speed discovery of disease mechanisms, biomarkers, and new therapeutic targets for Alzheimer's and related dementias.
How similar studies have gone: Earlier SEA-AD work and other single-cell brain atlases have produced large datasets and begun to reveal vulnerable cell types, and this project scales and expands that approach to more brain regions and comorbid dementias.
Where this research is happening
-
Allen Institute
Seattle, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Lein, Ed — Allen Institute
- Study coordinator: Lein, Ed
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.