In cooperation with Carolyn Meltzer, Dean of the Keck School of Medicine of USC, and Berislav Zlokovic, Director, Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute the Alzheimer's Therapeutic Research Institute (ATRI) successfully recruited our long-term collaborator Robert Rissman, Director of ATRI Biomarker Laboratory and Biorepository to establish a Neuroscience Translational Research Division. This change greatly expands the scope of ATRI to include basic science translational research in models of disease that can serve as preclinical work for future therapeutics. Rissman is appointed in the Department of Physiology and Neuroscience as a tenured professor. He has also been appointed to the W.M Keck Endowed Chair in Medicine.
Rissman’s team now occupies a 45,000 sq. ft. building adjacent to our existing building in the Sorrento Mesa section of San Diego. During the coming year we will complete the build-out of the laboratory facilities in the building, allowing us to accommodate additional basic research faculty. A major focus will be the continued development of plasma biomarkers of AD neurobiology.
So far we have expanded our biorepository within the new space:
- For reference, one -80ºC freezer can house 46,656 of our 0.5-2.0 mL clinical trial samples.
- The new Biorepository has the capacity to hold 248 x -80ºC freezers, which can hold ~11.57 million samples. As of now, the Biorepository houses 148 freezers.
