Ronald C. Petersen, M.D., Ph.D.

I am the Director of the Mayo Alzheimer's Disease Research Center and have an interest in clinical research involving aging, mild cognitive impairment, dementia, Alzheimer's Disease, and neuroimaging. The Mayo Alzheimer's Disease Research Center is part of a network of 28 centers around the country sponsored by the National Institute on Aging. Our center operates in Rochester, MN and Jacksonville, FL. In addition, we have a National Institute on Aging funded registry on aging and dementia in Rochester. This is a longitudinal project on clinical, epidemiological, genetic, biomarker, imaging, and neuropathological aspects of aging and very early cognitive impairment. We are developing models for predicting a subsequent cognitive impairment in normal elderly persons. A great deal of our work has focused on mild cognitive impairment as an intermediate stage between normal aging and Alzheimer's disease. Recently, we have begun a project funded by the Mayo Foundation investigating various aspects of successful cognitive aging in the community. We also study non-Alzheimer's disease dementias such as frontotemporal dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies and vascular dementia.