Dr. Dickson's primary research focus is the neuropathologic characterization of brains from prospective and longitudinal research studies sponsored by the National Institute on Aging. Brains come from five major sources: the Mayo Clinic Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (NIA AG16574) and Alzheimer Disease Patient Registry (NIA AG06786), the Religious Orders Study at Rush Medical Center in Chicago (NIA AG14449), the Einstein Aging Study at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx (NIA AG03949), and the State of Florida Alzheimer Disease Initiative. These studies differ in patient population characteristics, including elderly community volunteers and population-based samples. Fixed and frozen brain samples are obtained at autopsy and used for diagnostic evaluation and research studies that employ neurohistology, immunohistochemistry, electron microscopy and image analysis, as well as immunoassays (Western blots and ELISA).

Another major focus is on non-Alzheimer degenerative diseases, including Lewy body disease, which is a common age-related cause of dementia and Parkinsonism. Clinicopathologic studies are based upon brains from patients enrolled in the Udall Center for Excellence in Parkinson Research at the Mayo Clinic (NINDS NS40256). Dr. Dickson has studied disorders with neurofibrillary pathology in collaboration with Dr. Yen, a colleague at Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, for more than a decade. He has also characterized neuropathology of corticobasal degeneration, progressive supranuclear palsy, Pick's disease, and frontotemporal dementia linked to tau mutations. The latter investigations are part of a program project with Drs. Hutton and Yen (NIA AG17216) as well as a Society for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy Brain Bank. Transgenic mice with neurofibrillary pathology due to tau mutations are also studied as part of this effort.