Mapping tiny blood vessels in the brain's memory area and how they relate to Alzheimer's changes
Official title: Identifying microscopic vasculature within entorhinal cortex in healthy aging and its proximity to pathology profiles in Alzheimer's disease
Funded at Massachusetts General Hospital · NIH-11457052 · Data updated 2026-11-12
Researchers are using ultra-high-resolution brain scans and tissue staining to map tiny blood vessels in the entorhinal cortex to learn how those patterns relate to Alzheimer's disease.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Massachusetts General Hospital NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Boston, United States) |
| Project start | April 15, 2023 |
| Project end | March 31, 2028 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $699,509 |
| NIH project number | 4R01AG082223-02 |
| Project ID | NIH-11457052 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal participants are people with Alzheimer's, mild cognitive impairment, or older adults who enroll in a brain donation program and agree to postmortem tissue use for research.
✕Less likely to help
People seeking immediate treatments or therapeutic benefits will not directly benefit because this work analyzes donated brain tissue after death rather than testing a therapy in living patients.
What this research studies
If you or a loved one donates brain tissue after death, researchers will scan the entorhinal cortex with 7T MRI to visualize very small arterioles, penetrators, and capillaries. They will use image-enhancing algorithms to highlight vessels and then match those images to microscope-based staining for blood vessels, tau, TDP-43, and neuron counts. Neuronal loss will be measured with systematic random sampling to link local vascular patterns to regions of degeneration and protein pathology. This combined imaging and histology approach aims to create a detailed map of vascular territories where vulnerable neurons live.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: Could reveal specific microvascular patterns linked to Alzheimer's vulnerability, helping guide earlier detection or targeted prevention strategies in the future.
How similar studies have gone: High-field MRI and histologic vascular studies exist separately, but combining 7T postmortem vessel mapping with matched tau, TDP-43, and neuron counts in the entorhinal cortex is largely novel.
Where this research is happening
-
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Augustinack, Jean — Massachusetts General Hospital
- Study coordinator: Augustinack, Jean
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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.