University of Pittsburgh
Oscar Lopez, MD, FAAN
Site PI
Dr. Lopez’ primary research interest has focused on the distribution (incidence and prevalence), behavioral manifestations, risks, and long-term outcomes of dementia, especially Alzheimer’s disease (AD). His key objectives have been to identify clinical or genetic factors that modify the natural history of dementing illnesses. He has published classic papers examining the patterns of progression of all clinical forms of AD. He has examined the effect of psychiatric drugs, and dementia medication on the progression of AD. He has pioneered long-term studies of the use of dementia medications. He has reported that the long-term use of cholinesterase inhibitors alone or in combination with memantine decreased the risk of nursing home admission, but not death. He is a coauthor of The American Psychiatric Association Practice Guideline on the Use of Antipsychotics to Treat Agitation or Psychosis in Patients with Dementia. Dr. Lopez has conducted large scale studies in the clinical diagnosis of AD and vascular dementia, and he has published the first integrative overview and outcomes of the clinical diagnosis of Lewy Body Dementia, which directly addressed the controversy regarding whether this neuropathological entity can be identified ante-mortem, especially when it coexists with Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Lopez has published the first study that linked the presence of Lewy bodies in the amygdala to the development of major depression in AD patients. Dr. Lopez is conducting large-scale study in the clinical diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and is coauthor of the American Academy of Neurology Practice Guidelines for MCI. Specifically, his research has focused on the understanding of the interactions among multiple cerebral and systemic risk factors in relationship to the clinical expression of AD – either as dementia or MCI. These studies suggested that vascular disease creates a vulnerability state to AD pathology and modulates its clinical presentation. Dr. Lopez is currently conducting studies of the factors involved in the transition from normal to MCI and to dementia in relationship to cerebral amyloid deposition. These studies examine how cardiovascular and cerebrovascular factors create a vulnerability state for AD and neurodegeneration, and how they affect physiologically relevant compensatory mechanisms in the brain using MRI, FDG-PET, Pittsburgh Compound B (PiB), and tau-PET ligands technologies Dr Lopez has conducted large scale studies to determine whether MRI/PET and blood biomarkers can predict subsequent cognitive impairment and AD pathology in non-demented elderly individuals. In addition, he is conducting studies to determine the prediction of dementia in normal individuals using plasma Aβ1-40 and Aβ1-42 levels, and other blood biomarkers.
Sarah Berman, MD, PhD
Site Co-PI
Sarah Berman, MD PhD, is Associate Professor in the University of Pittsburgh Departments of Neurology and Clinical & Translational Science. She received her undergraduate degree in Human Biology from Stanford University, MD and PhD (Neuroscience) degrees from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and residency and fellowship training at Johns Hopkins University, before becoming faculty at the University of Pittsburgh. She is an Associate Director of the Pitt Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) Clinical Core as well as a Principal Investigator in the Pittsburgh Institute of Neurodegenerative Diseases. Her clinical expertise focuses on caring for those with Lewy Body Dementia (LBD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and other neurodegenerative disorders. In addition, her scientific research focuses on the role of mitochondrial dysfunction as an underlying cause of neurodegenerative diseases such as LBD and PD, initially studying early changes in mitochondrial dynamics and function in models of neurodegeneration, with more recent research focused on human brain mitochondrial imaging. She is involved in overseeing several clinical research studies as well, including as site Principal Investigator for the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network studies and site co-Principal Investigator for the Dementia with Lewy Bodies Consortium.
Leslie Dunn
Site Liaison