21 Oct Brain scans begin for nationwide Alzheimer’s disease study
Sterling Johnson stands next to the first CLARiTI participant, Barbara Smith Ballen.
Research participants have begun volunteering for brain scans at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison for a national study on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
One of the first to participate in the study, called Clarity in Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias Research Through Imaging, or CLARiTI, is Barbara Smith Ballen of Dane County. The 70-year-old mother of five began volunteering for research studies at the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center in 2018 and enrolled in CLARiTI in 2024. Smith Ballen’s father was diagnosed with dementia in the years leading up to this death, which motivated her to become a research participant.
“I am committed to doing whatever I can to help end this devastating disease and hopefully others will follow my lead,” she said. “I truly believe that this research team has what it takes to make a breakthrough; they just need to stay persistent.”
The five-year study, which launched participant brain scanning in August 2024, involves 37 National Institutes of Health-funded Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers across the United States. Researchers will gather data correlated with presence, absence or changes in characteristic disease biomarkers in people who have dementia or are at risk of developing it. The study is also intended to allow a better understanding of mixed dementia, which is a situation in which more than one neurological disease contributes to dementia, according to Sterling Johnson, study leader and professor of medicine at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.