With new funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas will be a key player in what researchers are calling the "A4 Trial," the study of a drug designed to clear the brain of amyloid protein plaques, foreboding deposits that are a major feature of Alzheimer's disease.

The funding, made available this week to a national consortium of research centers set up by the NIH to collaborate on the development of Alzheimer's treatments and diagnostic tools, could total as much as $55 million over five years.