The Alzheimer’s Disease Center (ADC) was chartered by the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees in 1991. The center’s mission is to overcome Alzheimer's disease and related disorders by conducting, fostering, and enabling research at UAB and through national collaborations, by providing the highest level of clinical care and service to patients and families, and by educating both professionals and the public.

Research in the ADC is supported by an Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) grant from the National Institute on Aging, P30AG086401. NIA-designated ADRC's serve as a local and national resource for research on Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and AD-related dementias (ADRD) and the development of more effective approaches to prevention, diagnosis, care, and therapy. They create shared resources that support dementia-relevant research, and they collaborate and coordinate their research efforts with other NIH-funded programs and investigators. The thematic focus of the UAB ADRC is on Deep South disparities in dementia.