Texas Alzheimer’s Research and Care Consortium

The Texas Alzheimer’s Research and Care Consortium (TARCC) is a collaboration between six of the state’s leading medical research institutions to improve early diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. Find out how you can become involved.

The Texas Alzheimer’s Research and Care Consortium (TARCC), established and supervised by the Texas Council on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders (the Council), is part of the state-funded Darrell K Royal Texas Alzheimer's Initiative.

TARCC Moving Forward

TARCC’s primary purpose is to discover new knowledge necessary for early diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of AD.

Two new initiatives we are particularly excited about as we move forward include expanding our study on the impact of AD in Mexican Americans and a new investigator grant program administered by Texas A&M University Health Science Center.

TARCC Research Updates

Breaking Research News
TARCC investigators have been involved in a number of new, noteworthy AD studies. Recently published research is wide ranging, spanning the gamut from clinical trials to new cognitive diagnostics; blood-based biomarkers in Mexican-Americans; and validation of biomarker algorithms in AD patients and AD animal models.

Rachelle Doody, MD, PhD, Effie Marie Cain Chair in Alzheimer's Disease Research, and Professor of Neurology in the Department of Neurology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston; TARCC Advisory Steering Committee Member.

Dr. Doody was lead author on behalf of the Alzheimer's Disease Study Group (ADCS) of a recent publication in the New England Journal of Medicine. The results of that study showed that Solanezumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody that binds amyloid, failed to improve cognition or functional ability in two, phase-3 double blind clinical trials. (N Eng J Med 370:311-321, 2014).

Donald Royall, MD, Chief of the Division of Aging and Geriatric Psychiatry, Julia and Van Buren Parr Professor of Geriatric Psychiatry, and a Professor in the departments of Medicine and Pharmacology at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio; TARCC Advisory Steering Committee Member.

Dr. Royall, on behalf of TARCC, published a study in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease where he described a new latent dementia proxy and validated it in several datasets, including well characterized subjects participating in the TARCC study. This type of analysis may make factor scores derived from latent variables a potentially attractive solution for dementia case-finding in rural or minority populations. (J Alzheimers Dis 37:89-97, 2013).

Sid O'Bryant, PhD, Interim Director - Institute for Aging and Alzheimer's Disease Research, Associate Professor of Internal Medical at University of North Texas Health Science Center; TARCC Investigator and former TARCC Advisory Steering Committee Member.

Dr. O'Bryant published a study in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, looking at biomarkers of AD among Mexican-Americans. This provocative study shows that the biomarker profile for AD among Mexican American cases is significantly different from that previously identified among non-Hispanic cases from many large-scale studies. This is the first study to explicitly examine and provide support for blood-based biomarkers of AD among Mexican Americans. (J Alzheimers Dis 34:849-849, 2013).