Medical advances over the last century have added additional years to our lives. Our mission is "to put life back into those years". We will achieve this objective by fostering inter-disciplinary research into the causes of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. We operate a full diagnostic and treatment clinic for dementia patients. To facilitate research, the Institute supports investigators by providing well-characterized patients who have volunteered for additional clinical or drug studies. The Institute also provides coded clinical data and autopsy tissues for research on the causes of neurodegeneration. We believe in nurturing and supporting the innovative power of individual investigators by providing resources and training to basic scientists and clinicians specializing in geriatrics.

• To provide state of the art clinical evaluations and diagnoses of dementia for the citizens of southern California. To provide longitudinal clinical and neuropsychological evaluations to track the progression of dementia and assist families and their physicians in making medical decisions about their loved ones.
  
  
• To work with minority populations to ensure that they have access to clinical assessments, help involve them in research, and increase their understanding of dementia.
  
  
• To maintain a population of well-characterized dementia patients who are willing to participate in research so that scientists can draw from large enough samples to better understand how dementia develops and make meaningful conclusions about new treatments.
  
  
• To recruit subjects with mild cognitive impairment so that researchers can investigate which factors predict the beginning of Alzheimer’s disease and which factors are associated with normal aging.
  
  
• To recruit, evaluate and follow age-matched "Successful Agers" who are willing to consider tissue donation. Successful Agers are control subjects who want to participate in research and help us learn what makes some people age successfully.
  
  
• To train individuals in clinical care and research of dementia and foster interdisciplinary research through collaborations, seminars, and support to all interested investigators. To provide information to the professional and lay communities through lectures, conferences, and direct training in the Institute.
  
  
• To provide brain tissue and other samples that have been carefully characterized both clinically and neuropathologically to qualified scientists so that they can conduct basic research to understand the cause of dementing disorders and potential treatments. To provide reagents for basic research, including beta-amyloid and related peptides and antibodies to foster research.
  
  
• To maintain and continue to develop state-of-the-art data management systems that allow individual investigators maximum access to the Institute for Brain Aging and Dementia data and analytical tools while maintaining strict patient confidentiality.