University of California’s Institute for Memory Impairment Leads in Alzheimer’s Research
Decades of research at UCI MIND have led to advanced Alzheimer’s care options and continued hope for the future.
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By Jessica Peralta
IRVINE, CA — UCI MIND’s laboratory has 15 freezers and five refrigerators. They are packed — but not with food.
About 1,200 brains are currently stored in those freezers and fridges.
Each sample represents a person who donated their brain to science with the hopes of helping future generations overcome neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s disease.
Since 1984, University of California (UC) Irvine’s Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders (UCI MIND) has stood as one of the leading centers in the country for Alzheimer’s research. UC Irvine is home to one of the first National Institutes of Health-funded Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers. UCI MIND is a collaboration among more than 70 faculty from 29 different campus departments. The institute also studies other Alzheimer’s disease-related dementias like frontotemporal dementia, Lewy body dementia, and vascular dementia.
“Over the last few years we have seen new drugs, new diagnostics tests, and new programs to enhance care, enter practice,” said UCI MIND Director Joshua Grill. “All of that was built on decades of research progress and all of it is poised to continue. The progress we are making is tangible and exciting and I am optimistic about the future.”
Central to the research are brain donors, and clinical trial and study participants who volunteer their time for testing and examination. Their efforts are helping further scientific knowledge about these neurological diseases. The work of dedicated researchers is also key to understanding these diseases, discovering treatment, and developing a cure.
Clinical Trial Participants
For Julie Moore, 55, Lake Forest, symptoms started with misplacing her keys. She and her husband, Ron, even bought an AirTag to attach to her keys so they could be tracked with her phone.
“She just didn’t remember where they were, and she would sometimes ask me a question and then 10 minutes later she’d ask me the same question and not remember that she’d asked me that a little bit ago,” Ron said.
Julie was diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s pathology in March 2024. She entered UCI MIND’s Synaptic Therapy Alzheimer’s Research Trial (START) Study that same month. Both her parents died from Alzheimer’s disease as well as Ron’s dad. As a family comprised of some medical professionals — Julie’s dad was a doctor, her mom was a nurse and Ron has a background in forensic toxicology — they knew science was the answer.
“It’s kind of your best shot,” Julie said. “With it running in my family and therefore running in my daughter’s family, I don’t want her to go down the same road that my parents did, Ron’s dad did, I’m going down. I don’t want it to be a foregone conclusion, and research is about the only way [there’s] going to be a way out of that.”
Julie, who grew up in Irvine, was already part of UC Irvine’s Willed Body Program and was familiar with the university’s strong reputation. So when the couple learned about the university’s START Study, Julie became one of the first participants. The trial is a double-blind, nation-wide study testing a drug for patients who are in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
The drug tested in the study is known as CT1812 and works by protecting brain synapses, which are key to forming memories. Some of the study’s eligibility requirements are a diagnosis of mild Alzheimer’s disease dementia, agreeing to stay in the study for about two years, and having a study partner like a spouse or family member who can answer questions about the participant.
As Julie’s study partner Ron made study site visits to UC Irvine and answered questions in person and via phone calls. Julie completed her participation in the study in April. The couple will not know whether she received the drug or placebo until the study is completed.
Julie said a lot of her life now requires support and workarounds — though she considers herself relatively functional. She has a background in mathematics, has a degree in statistics and has mostly worked in K-12 education. Prior to her diagnosis, she handled the household finances, but memory slips disrupted her ability to continue. Since then, she’s handed over responsibilities for finances to Ron.
“I feel more anxiety and I feel more frustration, and I don’t have the attention span and I certainly don’t have the memory. Some things that are executive function have become challenging,” Julie said, “but I can still dress myself. I can still run with my dogs.”
One of her current goals at this stage of her condition is slowing it down and treating the symptoms. But she has the larger motivation of contributing to science for the sake of her daughter and future generations. Since her diagnosis, Julie has also become involved with dementia and Alzheimer’s organizations and advocacy groups.
“You have to find a purpose, or living is not worth it,” Julie said. “One of the key symptoms of a dementia diagnosis is apathy. … You have to have a purpose if you want to live well with your dementia, and that’s advocating medically, that’s advocating socially with the dementia-friendly movement. It’s sharing the story so that people understand.”
Inside the Brain Bank
UCI MIND currently functions as an interconnected web of faculty, researchers, staff, and departments collaborating closely on research studies. There are two key locations where the ground-level research is generated: the UCI MIND Brain Tissue Repository and the Research Clinic at UCI Health’s Gottschalk Medical Plaza. Both are unassuming spaces generating an immense amount of valuable information from both living study participants and deceased brain donors. Plans for a UCI MIND clinical research facility were announced late last year following $80 million in private donations. The anticipated completion is 2029.
The lab is staffed by Tissue Repository and Brain Donation Coordinators Brianna Gawronski and Lourdes Gonzalez, and Staff Research Associate Kevin Wood. Both Gawronski and Gonzalez are currently on-call for whenever a brain donation occurs, day or night, seven days a week.
When a person enrolled in the donation program dies, a hospice nurse or family member calls the program’s 24/7 pager number. One of the brain donation coordinators meets an autopsy technician at the hospital as soon as possible to retrieve the brain. The brain is brought to the UCI brain bank, where it is dissected into coronal sections and placed inside freezers set at minus 80 degrees Celsius (-112℉). The other half of the brain is placed in a chemical preservative such as paraformaldehyde — a less toxic version of formaldehyde. The preserved brains are shared with the team’s neuropathologists, who examine them for final diagnosis of the cause of the dementia in a program participant (or to confirm that the person did not have any disease).
The entire brain donation process from initial call to freezing typically takes about eight to 10 hours, but the process may vary depending on the particular study or request by research university. The lab receives requests for brain tissue samples from universities worldwide to support as many research studies as possible. The brain bank has tissue samples dating back to donors who died in the late 1980s.
The main study, the Longitudinal Study, has been running since 1988. Researchers track individuals, both with and without memory impairments, annually and until the end of their lives. UCI MIND hosts a biannual appreciation event for participants of this study to meet the researchers and lab associates.
Down Syndrome and Alzheimer’s Disease
Among the groundbreaking research currently underway at UCI MIND is the connection between Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease.
Elizabeth Head, PhD, a UC Irvine professor and director of the Brain Donation Program, is a pioneer researcher in this field. She said most of her research is focused on aging and Alzheimer’s disease in Down syndrome. Down syndrome represents the most common genetic cause of Alzheimer’s disease. UC Irvine holds a unique position in this area of research in that the university has several programs actively conducting Down syndrome research. UCI MIND also accepts brain donations from people with Down syndrome.
“We are learning that women with Down syndrome may develop Alzheimer’s disease more rapidly than men,” Head said. “We are also learning more about resistance and resilience to Alzheimer’s disease through the study of people with Down syndrome. By working with investigators in UCI MIND, we are able to accelerate our discoveries and participate in truly innovative research.”