Saykin Lab

Andrew Saykin's, PsyD research program focuses on precision medicine for the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. His laboratory utilizes the integration of advanced multimodal high throughput neuroimaging, cognitive neuroscience, and multiple “omics” data, such as gene and protein/metabolite networks, to identify novel biomarkers of disease mechanisms and potential therapeutic targets of disease. Saykin’s research also encompasses the study of cognitive/memory deficits as they relate to cancer, traumatic brain injury, temporal lobe epilepsy, schizophrenia and other brain diseases.

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Curious to learn more about Saykin's work and ongoing research efforts in neuroimaging and Alzheimer's disease?

Center for Neuroimaging

Indiana Alzheimer's Disease Research Center

Saykin discusses path toward precision medicine

Multimodal Advanced Neuroimaging/Network analysis and Systems Biology In Alzheimer’s disease, neuropathology may be present 15-20 years Chart showing Network Analysis of Longitudinal Endophenotypes and Systems Biology and Functional Genomics

Chart showing Network Analysis of Longitudinal Endophenotypes and Systems Biology and Functional Genomics

prior to symptom onset, necessitating the need for early detection and intervention. Therefore, multimodal high throughput neuroimaging provides an in vivo evolving readout of neuropathology of brain disease, allowing for the investigation of clinical problems and the analysis of brain structure, function, activity and connectivity.

This information is integrated with advanced analytics that utilize multi-omics datasets, such as transcriptomics, metabolomics, proteomics, and genomics, in a systems biology approach that simulates complex biological systems and interactions. In unison, these complex tools aid in the identification of biomarkers for early risk, which are important for characterizing pathophysiology, identifying novel targets for therapeutic development and assessing the response to treatment.

leading research

CLEAR-AD

Alongside Kwangsik Nho, PhD, Saykin is collaborating with Mayo Clinic in Florida to lead a new 5-year, $41 million study what will help better understand the biological pathways underlying Alzheimer's disease. CLEAR-AD, or Centrally-linked Longitudinal Peripheral Biomarkers of AD, will ultimately create more personalized patient care, enabling earlier and less-invasive diagnosis

Discover more about CLEAR-AD

Indiana Alzheimer's Disease Research Center

Since 2013, Saykin has been the director of the Indiana Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (IADRC), which has been a leader in Alzheimer's disease research for more than 30 years. The IADRC is one of only 33 centers in the U.S. solely committed to Alzheimer’s research and receives millions in NIH-funding each year.

Read about recent center funding

Korean Brain Aging Study for Early Diagnosis

The Korean Brain Aging Study for the Early Diagnosis and Prediction of AD (KBASE) is a comprehensive prospective cohort study launched at Seoul National University in 2014. It involves the systematic longitudinal collection of comprehensive clinical, cognitive and lifestyle data, multimodal neuroimaging (MRI/MRA, DTI, rsfMRI, amyloid, tau and FDG PET), and bio-specimens in Korea. The KBASE cohort consists of well-characterized participants including cognitively normal controls with a wide age range (20 to 90 years), mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease dementia. Indiana University School of Medicine is collaborating with SNU to lead the project and conduct comprehensive analysis and harmonization on the KBASE dataset.

Discover more about recent KBASE funding

25 active grants and subcontracts

$19 million in annual grant funding

more than 60 collaborating faculty

Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative

For many years, Saykin has been involved in the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), which brings together researchers and their study data from across the country as they work to define the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers collect, validate and utilize data, including MRI and PET images, genetics, cognitive tests, CSF and blood biomarkers as predictors of the disease.

Learn more about ADNI

Younger woman with hand on older woman's shoulder

Indiana Memory and Aging Study

The Indiana Memory and Aging Study (IMAS) is an observational longitudinal study that aims to investigate key biological processes during early stages of Alzheimer's and validate early prognostic biomarkers for earlier detection of people at risk of disease. It seeks to determine the temporal relationships and interactions among pathophysiological domains, which combination of baseline markers is most predictive of clinical and MRI progression on follow-up, and the stage-specific profile of functional disruption of brain activity and connectivity, tau and amyloid burden, microvascular pathology, neurodegeneration, and inflammation in preclinical and prodromal Alzheimer's disease.

Learn more about IMAS

current research funding

P30AG072976 (PI: Saykin)

Indiana Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (IADRC)
5R01AG019771-15 (PI: Saykin)

Memory Circuitry in MCI and Early Alzheimer’s Disease Prodrome: Molecular Drivers
R01 AG068193 (PI: Mandelblatt; MPI: Saykin)

Cognitive Aging, Alzheimer’s disease, and Cancer-related Cognitive Decline
U01 AG068057 (PI: Thompson; MPIs: Davatzikos, Huang, Saykin, Shen)

Ultrascale Machine Learning to Empower Discovery in Alzheimer’s Disease Biobanks
U01AG072177 (PI: Saykin; MPIs: Nho, Lee)

Korean Brain Aging Study, Longitudinal Endophenotypes and Systems Biology
2U19AG024904-16 (PI: Saykin)

Genetics Core
Northern California Institute/Res/Edu
T32 AG071444 (PI: Landreth; MPIs: Lamb & Saykin)

Training Grant on Alzheimer's Disease and ADRD at Indiana University
R01 LM013463 (PI: Shen; MPIs: Moore, Saykin)

Informatics Algorithms for Genomic Analysis of Brain Imaging Data
RF1 AG058942 (Kaddurah-Daouk) (Site PI: Saykin)

Duke University (Prime: NIH)
Gut Liver Brain Biochemical Axis in Alzheimer’s Disease
5R01AG057739-05 (MPIs: Perry, Apostolova, Saykin)

Leveraging Neuroimaging Biomarkers to Understand the Role of Social Networks in Alzheimer's Disease