The Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) was funded by National Institute of Aging (NIA) plus contributions from pharmaceutical companies in 2004 to optimize biomarker assessments in support of AD therapeutic trials. This multicenter project would grow to be conducted across 63 sites studying three cohorts, cognitively normal individuals, those with mild cognitive impairment and those with mild AD dementia, with MRI, lumbar puncture for spinal fluid analysis, and cognitive and clinical assessments longitudinally. Amyloid PET imaging was added to the ADNI protocol in 2005, and tau PET was added in 2015. Remarkably, ADNI shares all data collected as soon as it is quality-controlled; this aggressive data sharing has resulted in over 2000 peer-reviewed publications using ADNI data. The coordinating center for ADNI moved to USC ATRI in 2015. ADNI data has been instrumental to the design of most therapeutic trials in the field. The latest application to continue ADNI has been submitted.
