In a groundbreaking advancement that promises to accelerate our understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, researchers at UTHealth Houston have been awarded a monumental $27.2 million grant from the National Institute on Aging, a division within the National Institutes of Health. This substantial funding will propel a national research network dedicated to harnessing the power of real-world data through innovative ontological methodologies aimed at elucidating common data elements pertinent to Alzheimer’s research.
The initiative, titled “Using Real-World Data to Derive Common Data Elements for Alzheimer’s Disease and AD-Related Dementias Research Through Ontological Innovation” (ReCARDO), represents a highly collaborative effort uniting expertise from ten premier academic institutions across the United States. UTHealth Houston stands at the helm of this consortium, functioning as the central hub coordinating multi-institutional research that integrates cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI), natural language processing (NLP), and biomedical informatics.
Real-world data, which consists of information gathered from diverse sources including electronic health records, insurance claims, wearable devices, and mobile health applications, has emerged as a critical resource capable of offering granular insights into patient experiences, disease progression, and treatment efficacy outside the confines of traditional clinical trials. By systematizing and standardizing these data through common data elements derived via ontological frameworks, the ReCARDO project aims to create interoperable datasets that facilitate seamless sharing, comparison, and meta-analysis across disparate studies and populations.
Leading the charge at UTHealth Houston are three principal investigators: GQ Zhang, PhD, vice president and chief data scientist; Hongfang Liu, PhD, vice president of learning health systems; and Licong Cui, PhD, associate professor at the McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics. These researchers bring a wealth of expertise in AI, digital innovation, and biomedical data science, positioning UTHealth Houston as an unrivaled epicenter of data-driven neurodegenerative disease research.
Dr. Zhang emphasized the unique positioning of UTHealth Houston given its concentration of multidisciplinary talents in neuroscience, informatics, and aging studies. He noted that development of a robust infrastructure to leverage real-world data is essential for enabling collaborative scientific discovery and accelerating the pace at which therapeutic strategies can be validated and deployed to patients. The vision is to harness advanced data science methodologies that not only analyze vast datasets but also improve the interpretability and utility of findings in clinical and translational contexts.
Alzheimer’s disease is an escalating public health crisis, affecting over 7 million Americans aged 65 and older, a figure projected to swell dramatically in the coming decades. This neurodegenerative condition is marked by progressive cognitive decline and poses profound challenges for patients, caregivers, and healthcare systems worldwide. The ReCARDO initiative seeks to catalyze novel insights by empowering researchers with data-centric tools and common standards that enhance reproducibility and cross-study integration.
A key scientific ambition of the project is to develop sophisticated AI algorithms and natural language processing tools that can extract meaningful information from unstructured clinical narratives, imaging reports, and other heterogeneous sources. These technological innovations will underpin the creation of a unified ontology guiding the derivation of common data elements, thereby standardizing variables across institutions and datasets to enable more precise and scalable analyses.
Dr. Hongfang Liu highlighted the transformative potential of this approach, describing it as a critical step toward translating real-world data into actionable evidence that can directly inform clinical decision-making and healthcare policies. By positioning UTHealth Houston as the national center for real-world data science in Alzheimer’s research, the project aims to establish a sustainable platform for continuous discovery, validation, and dissemination of findings with immediate public health relevance.
The consortium includes other eminent principal investigators such as Ronald Petersen, MD, PhD at Mayo Clinic; Zoe Arvanitakis, MD, MS at Rush University; and Yong Chen, PhD at the University of Pennsylvania. Co-investigators from partner sites bring complementary expertise spanning neurology, data science, and epidemiology, ensuring a comprehensive multidisciplinary framework supporting the initiative’s ambitious goals.
UTHealth Houston is also contributing a robust team of co-investigators from its Department of Neurology, McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics, Cizik School of Nursing, and School of Public Health. This breadth of expertise facilitates a holistic approach to studying Alzheimer’s disease, encompassing molecular mechanisms, patient outcomes, caregiver impacts, and population health dynamics.
As the ReCARDO project advances, it is poised to create a paradigm shift in how Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias are studied, enabling real-time synthesis of evidence from diverse real-world sources and accelerating the translation from data to therapeutic discovery. The integration of ontological innovation and AI-driven analytics heralds a new era of precision medicine strategies tailored to the complexities of neurodegenerative disorders.
This landmark initiative underscores UTHealth Houston’s commitment to addressing one of the most pressing challenges in contemporary medicine through collaborative, data-intensive science. By leveraging its deep expertise in informatics and neurotechnology, UTHealth Houston aspires to contribute decisively to global efforts aimed at mitigating the devastating toll of Alzheimer’s disease.
Subject of Research: Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias, Real-World Data, Ontological Innovation, Artificial Intelligence in Biomedical Informatics
Article Title: UTHealth Houston Leads $27 Million National Initiative to Harness Real-World Data for Transformative Alzheimer’s Disease Research
News Publication Date: Not specified in the content
Web References:
https://www.uth.edu/data/contact-us
https://sbmi.uth.edu/faculty-and-staff/hongfang-liu.htm
https://sbmi.uth.edu/faculty-and-staff/licong-cui.htm
https://www.alz.org/getmedia/c05f7ba4-9aea-4cb0-8898-5e8bff3f0930/executive-summary-2025-alzheimers-disease-facts-and-figures.pdf
Image Credits: UTHealth Houston
Keywords: Neurodegenerative diseases, Dementia
