Core D: Analytic Core

Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston MA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

SUMMARY?CORE D: ANALYTIC CORE. The integration and analysis of a wide array of data from the Cores and Projects is central to the Harvard Aging Brain Study (HABS). Core D: Analytic Core provides the database and statistical support for these functions. The Core has developed and optimized the AgingCentral database for data entry, quality assurance, storage, backup, and query systems, as well as linkage to raw and processed image files and data distribution for biostatistical analyses and data sharing with outside investigators. The Core also supports, designs, and implements analyses that help to define and quantify critical disease pathologies, brain networks, biomarkers, and their interactions, and helps to select key subsets of the population for additional procedures or specific analyses. The Core has helped to develop analysis plans for each of the Projects and the other Cores, and will support their analyses through consultation and collaboration. We also develop summary measures of brain pathologies and network disruption that can be used in a wide variety of analyses within and across projects, and address methods needed for longitudinal analyses across multiple nonlinear processes within the aging brain. The Specific Aims of the Analytic Core are as follows: 1. Data Integrity and Integration, which includes data entry, quality control, and storage; data access and distribution; and data sharing; 2. Statistical Support, Oversight, and Analysis, which includes statistical support for the Projects and Cores, and sampling and subset selection; and 3. Development of Innovative Statistical Models and Methods, which includes joint modeling of PiB, T807, functional connectivity and cognitive measures; treatment of misaligned biomarker measurements; and derivation of efficient prevention trial populations and endpoints. The Analytic Core is responsible for managing the large and complex array of data that has been and will be collected in the project, including neuroimaging data, clinical data, and genetic and biomarker data, and integrating it into a single database that facilitates the proposed research. The Core is also responsible for overseeing and facilitating the statistical analyses for each Project and developing new ways to analyze the data to better understand it and translate the findings into future clinical trials.