Study to Understand Novel Biomarkers in Researching Dementia (SUNBIRD)

January 15, 2026 updated by: Washington University School of Medicine

Blood Amyloid, Tau, and Neurodegeneration Biomarkers and Prediction of Clinical Onset, Cognitive Decline, and Dementia Diagnosis

The purpose of this study is to determine the relationships between amyloid, tau, and neurodegeneration biomarkers in the blood and the presence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology, clinical cognitive decline, and diagnosis. We aim to understand how well blood-based biomarkers can diagnose and predict Alzheimer's disease, which will help to further develop and validate blood tests for the disease.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Recruiting

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Detailed Description

All participants who are eligible and provide informed consent will complete an initial study visit, which includes a research blood collection and cognitive assessments. Depending on the results of the cognitive assessments, participants will complete follow-up visits annually or biennially for additional cognitive testing, research blood collections, and potential clinical testing for Alzheimer's disease as determined by the participant's medical provider.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Observational

Enrollment (Estimated)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
1800

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact

The name and contact information for the person who can answer enrollment questions for a clinical study. Each location where the study is being conducted may also have a specific contact, who may be better able to answer those questions.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Missouri
      • St Louis, Missouri, United States, 63110
        • Recruiting
        • Washington University School of Medicine
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Randall Bateman, MD
        • Contact:

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

All participants who completed our prior study, the Study to Evaluate Amyloid in Blood and Imaging Related to Dementia (SEABIRD, NCT03899844), will be invited to join SUNBIRD. We will also recruit approximately 1000 new participants from Washington University and Barnes-Jewish Hospital affiliated clinics in the greater St. Louis metropolitan area.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • At least 60 years of age
  • 80% of the newly enrolled clinic-based cohort will have symptoms of forgetfulness, mild cognitive impairment, mild dementia, or Alzheimer's disease as determined by their medical chart and/or provider
  • All SEABIRD participants will be invited to participate regardless of their cognitive status

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Unable to perform one or more basic activities of daily living (eating, bathing, dressing, ambulating, toileting) due to cognitive impairment
  • Uncontrolled hepatitis B, hepatitis C, or HIV at time of blood collection
  • Taking a disease-modifying drug for AD at time of enrollment
  • Blood transfusion in the last three months
  • Unwilling or unable to participate in all study activities

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort

Group / Cohort

A group or subgroup of participants in an observational study that is assessed for biomedical or health outcomes.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Cognitively normal
Participants without symptoms of cognitive impairment will be followed up annually for potential cognitive changes, and will complete additional blood collections every two years.
Other: Research blood collection
Research blood assays for amyloid, tau, and neurodegeneration
Other: Cognitive assessments
Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) or electronic Clinical Dementia Rating (eCDR); Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA)
Cognitively impaired
For participants with symptoms of cognitive impairment, their medical providers will review the results of the research cognitive assessments and determine whether further testing (a clinical tau PET scan and choice of an amyloid PET, cerebrospinal fluid, or blood clinical test for amyloid plaques) is needed. Symptomatic participants will be followed up annually for research blood collections and cognitive assessments.
Other: Research blood collection
Research blood assays for amyloid, tau, and neurodegeneration
Other: Cognitive assessments
Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) or electronic Clinical Dementia Rating (eCDR); Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA)
Diagnostic test: Clinical tau PET
Tau PET (flortaucipir)
Diagnostic test: Clinical amyloid test
Amyloid PET (florbetapir), CSF amyloid test, or blood amyloid test

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Area under the curve (AUC) of plasma amyloid-beta 42/40 in predicting amyloid PET status
Time Frame: Baseline
Baseline
Area under the curve (AUC) of plasma %p-tau217 in predicting amyloid PET status
Time Frame: Baseline
Baseline
Area under the curve (AUC) of plasma p-tau217 in predicting tau PET status
Time Frame: Baseline
Baseline
Area under the curve (AUC) of plasma p-tau205 in predicting tau PET status
Time Frame: Baseline
Baseline
Area under the curve (AUC) of plasma neurofilament light in predicting tau PET status
Time Frame: Baseline
Baseline
Area under the curve (AUC) of plasma %p-tau205 in predicting clinical diagnosis
Time Frame: Baseline, 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, 4 years, 5 years
Baseline, 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, 4 years, 5 years
Area under the curve (AUC) of plasma %p-tau217 in predicting clinical diagnosis
Time Frame: Baseline, 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, 4 years, 5 years
Baseline, 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, 4 years, 5 years
Area under the curve (AUC) of plasma amyloid-beta 42/40 in predicting clinical diagnosis
Time Frame: Baseline, 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, 4 years, 5 years
Baseline, 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, 4 years, 5 years
Area under the curve (AUC) of plasma neurofilament light in predicting clinical diagnosis
Time Frame: Baseline, 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, 4 years, 5 years
Baseline, 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, 4 years, 5 years

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
Washington University School of Medicine

Collaborators

Collaborators

An organization other than the sponsor that provides support for a clinical study. This support may include activities related to funding, design, implementation, data analysis, or reporting.
National Institute on Aging (NIA)

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Randall Bateman, MD, Washington University School of Medicine
  • Study Director: David Carr, MD, Washington University School of Medicine

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
August 14, 2024

Primary Completion (Estimated)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
December 1, 2028

Study Completion (Estimated)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
December 1, 2028

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
August 1, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
August 6, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
August 9, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
January 16, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
January 15, 2026

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • 202405156
  • R01AG061900 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

De-identified blood biomarker, clinical cognitive assessment, PET, and demographic data will be made available for sharing in the LONI IDA repository. Genetic data (genome-wide associated studies) will be made available in the dbGaP repository.

IPD Sharing Time Frame

Shared data generated from this project will be made available as soon as possible, and no later than the time of publication or the end of the funding period, whichever comes first. The duration of preservation and sharing of the data is subject to policies followed by dbGaP and LONI IDA repositories.

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

Given the sensitive nature of the dataset, data will be made available in LONI IDA and dbGaP data repositories, which restrict access to the data to qualified investigators with an approved data use agreement (DUA). Data can be accessed after application and approval through the LONI IDA and dbGaP databases.

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • STUDY_PROTOCOL
  • SAP
  • ICF

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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