UCSF Brain Aging Network for Cognitive Health

To advance science, it is helpful for researchers to share information they get from their studies. They do this by putting information into one or more scientific databases, where it is stored along with information from other studies. Researchers can then study the information combined from many studies to learn even more about health and disease. Generally, if you agree to participate in these studies, your research data will be added to one or more scientific databases after it has been stripped of any identifying information and stored with de-identified data from other studies. Authorized researchers can then analyze this data to learn more about brain aging and disease. Findings are peer reviewed and published to share any discoveries with the larger community.

Disclosure of research results will vary by study. Generally speaking, for our healthy aging studies, our policy is "no news is good news."  Unanticipated medical information may be found over the course of your participation in research. If this information thought to be relevant to your healthcare, a clinician will inform you and your local doctor or primary care physician. If you have any other questions about this please reach out to your study coordinator.  

In general, MRI scans collected through most research studies are also read by a UCSF radiologist.  If the radiologist finds something clinically significant, a clinician will contact you to communicate those results. With your consent, we can then provide those imaging scans to your physician. Please note that these scans are not meant to take the place of a clinical scan ordered through your primary care physician. 

Research participants will receive a parking sticker that validates parking for 24 hours at the following garages:

     •  1625 Owens St. Garage, located next to the Mission Bay Community Center.

     •  1630 Third St. Garage, located just north of 16th Street.

Yes, we do. Alongside the building entrance at 675 Nelson Rising Lane there are handicap spots reserved for research participants. When you check-in, ask someone at the front desk for a handicap placard. Please put this placard on your dashboard so the parking enforcement know that you are (or are with) a research participant. 

We conduct PET scans at our China Basin campus, 185 Berry St. Lobby 6, Suite 180. For more information on transportation and parking to China Basin click the link below.

USCf China Basin Map

PET stands for positron emission tomography and is used in conjunction with a radiotracer to locate specific proteins in your body. In our study, we are looking for amyloid aggregation in the brain and the radiotracer we use is called Florbetapir F18. Amyloid aggregation forms plaques, which are commonly found in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases. However, amyloid is sometimes seen in the brains of people with normal cognition and no diagnosed disease process.

Here at the Memory and Aging Center, we often refer to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) as "liquid gold" because it is so incredibly valuable to research on neurodegenerative diseases.  CSF is a clear liquid that bathes the brain and spinal cord.  Because CSF interacts so closely with the brain and spinal cord, researchers believe it can serve as a "window" into brain health, containing proteins that serve as markers to detect neurological changes before a person displays symptoms. 

The discomfort associated with a lumbar puncture varies person to person. Most of our research participants report that the only part of the procedure that is painful is the brief sting that they feel when they receive the local numbing medication (lidocaine).  After the anesthetic takes effect, participants might feel a sensation of pressure during the actual lumbar puncture procedure.