Jerry Wang, MD PhD, and Bin Xu, PhD of the Biomanufacturing Research Institute and Technology Enterprise (BRITE) at North Carolina Central University (NCCU) has been awarded the Duke/NCCU Collaborative Translational Research Award for their project titled “Development of CSF-based ultrasensitive tests for Alzheimer’s diagnosis and predicting disease progression”. The goal of this project is to develop CSF-based assays for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) diagnosis and disease course prediction, by detecting misfolded tau species with real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) and protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA) methods. The project will combine Dr. Wang’s knowledge in AD neuropathology and Dr. Xu’s expertise in biomarker discovery, and utilize biospecimen resources from the Duke Bryan Brain Bank and Duke-UNC Alzheimer’s Disease Research Collaborative.