# Epidemiology of Alzheimer's disease resilience and risk pedigrees

> **NIH NIH RF1** · BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $76,296

## Abstract

Project Abstract
 Far too many people have personal experience with the destructive nature of
Alzheimer's disease (AD). Despite significant progress identifying genetic risk factors and
increased understanding of the inflammatory and immune response in AD etiology, our
knowledge remains inadequate to develop effective preventions or cures. We have linked data
and subjects from the Utah Population Database (medical records, death certificates, and
genealogy for over 7 million subjects) and the Cache County Study on Memory in Aging
(longitudinal cognitive assessment on over 5,000 subjects in Utah). These samples are an
accurate representation of the general European American population, making findings from
these data generalizable in that context. The combination of these studies enables the
execution of an innovative design for gene discovery, and to evaluate the association between
AD risk and resilience pedigrees, and key aspects of AD epidemiology, including socioeconomic
status, cardiovascular disease, cancer and many others. We will first, conduct studies that
leverage linkage and association to identify novel genetic risk factors. Second, we will use the
UPDB to conduct powerful studies of measurable risk and resilience factors for AD. Third, we
will collect additional samples from key pedigrees to enhance our study. And finally, all data
associated with our effort will be harmonized and deposited into public databases. In summary
our approach is carefully designed and well powered to provide new knowledge and facilitate
efforts to develop a cure for AD. Specifically, we will augment the Cache County Study, an
existing longitudinal cohort study, in an efficient and directed manner, including collecting and
sequencing DNA samples from well-characterized cases and controls in the study. Using our
unparalleled and powerful dataset and approach, we will explore trends in the risk of AD and
their explanation via putative risk and protective factors. Our successful efforts will identify
measurable risk and resilience factors for AD, enabling precision medicine by providing
information for modifying risk in individuals and providing insights into those who will benefit
most from therapeutic interventions. Finally, all data in from this proposal will be harmonized
with relevant datasets and electronically archived in appropriate databases.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10066145
- **Project number:** 3RF1AG054052-01S1
- **Recipient organization:** BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** John Sai Keong Kauwe
- **Activity code:** RF1 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $76,296
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2016-09-01 → 2021-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10066145

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10066145, Epidemiology of Alzheimer's disease resilience and risk pedigrees (3RF1AG054052-01S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10066145. Licensed CC0.

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