The informatics core of the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative

The Alzheimer's Diseases Neuroimaging Initiative project has brought together geographically distributed investigators, each collecting data on the progression of Alzheimer's disease. The quantity and diversity of the imaging, clinical, cognitive, biochemical, and genetic data acquired and generated throughout the study necessitated sophisticated informatics systems to organize, manage, and disseminate data and results. We describe, here, a successful and comprehensive system that provides powerful mechanisms for processing, integrating, and disseminating these data not only to support the research needs of the investigators who make up the Alzheimer's Diseases Neuroimaging Initiative cores, but also to provide widespread data access to the greater scientific community for the study of Alzheimer's Disease.