South Texas Alzheimer’s Disease Center Population Neuroscience

NIH RePORTER · NIH · P30 · $123,766 · view on reporter.nih.gov ↗

Abstract

ABSTRACT – Population Neuroscience Core The Population Neuroscience Core (PNC) of the South Texas Alzheimer’s Center (STAC) aims to advance our understanding of the life course factors contributing to Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias, particularly in the understudied population of Mexican American Hispanic, who face an increased risk of the disease. To achieve this goal, our team will conduct cutting-edge epidemiological and neuroscience research to monitor the prevalence and incidence trends of health disparities in dementia, identify life-course risk and protective factors contributing to dementia, identify suitable and cost-effective biomarkers for risk prediction, and the develop culturally and linguistically appropriate tools for cognitive assessment in Mexican Americans from South Texas. The PNC has exceptional resources from existing longitudinal population-based cohorts, new studies focusing on Mexican Americans with deep phenotyping, and established national and international collaborations. The PNC aims to additionally close the gap of representation of Mexican Americans in epidemiological research. This will be achieved by the creation of a PNC sharing resource, where harmonized data to UDS and other standards in dementia research will be shared with other ADRCs and the scientific community. This setting allows the PNC to provide cognitively healthy controls for the Clinical and Neuropathological Cores as well as other ADRCs. Finally, we will train MDs, PhDs, and other professionals in population neuroscience, to develop skills in quantitative and qualitative research methods by leveraging local and national level data. The PNC will develop these aims in close collaboration with all STAC Cores. In summary, the PNC strategically positioned to be a national resource of valuable data from Mexican American Hispanics living in South Texas, and an asset to collaborative research centered on Alzheimer’s and related dementias research. We are fully integrated with the other STAC Cores to provide knowledge, data, services, tools, and training to investigators across the Center, as well as the broader ADRC and scientific community.

Key facts

NIH application ID
10880641
Project number
5P30AG066546-04
Recipient
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HLTH SCIENCE CENTER
Principal Investigator
Claudia L Satizabal
Activity code
P30
Funding institute
NIH
Fiscal year
2024
Award amount
$123,766
Award type
5
Project period
2021-09-01 → 2026-06-30