# Quantitative Social Phenotyping in Alzheimer's Disease

> **NIH NIH K23** · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL · 2020 · $196,723

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Dr. Joel Salinas is a Behavioral Neurologist and Neuropsychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH),
whose career goal is to become a leading clinician-investigator in the field of brain aging with specific emphasis
in understanding the socio-behavioral aspects of Alzheimer's disease (AD). These insights will help identify
underlying biological pathways in AD risk and disease progression and, eventually, characterize more patient-
centered interventions and outcomes in the treatment of AD. As a first step towards this goal, he seeks to
improve the study of social relationship factors in AD by developing effective methods for quantifying and
identifying relevant social phenotypes. This area of AD research is promising because factors like loneliness and
social isolation have been tied to accumulation of AD-related neuropathology, but the biological underpinnings of
these influences remain poorly understood. A critical barrier to improving our understanding of these pathways is
addressing the complexity of social relationship factors and temporally relating these to biological changes and
disease risk. To overcome this barrier, Dr. Salinas's proposal seeks to use a large, well-characterized,
community-based longitudinal cohort to investigate whether social relationship factors—when quantified at the
level of two major subcomponents, social support and social network graphs—1) prospectively affect risk for
incident AD and 2) are associated with vulnerability for AD-related neurodegeneration and cognitive decline. Dr.
Salinas plans to employ a research approach that systematically relates social phenotypes to neuropsychological
testing, cutting-edge neuroimaging, and clinical assessments most relevant in the earliest stages of AD. Dr.
Salinas established an early-career track record in the investigation of neuroimaging markers of development as
well as the psychosocial determinants and epidemiology of poststroke depression, acquiring foundational
expertise in statistics and bioinformatics in the process. As part of a mentored T32 award, he also generated
preliminary data supporting the feasibility of the proposed research. The proposed K23 award will train Dr.
Salinas in selection, capture, and interpretation of social relationship measures, social network graph model
construction and analysis, and advanced techniques in the medical epidemiology of aging. To this end, Dr.
Salinas has assembled a team of experts in all aforementioned areas, leveraging the extensive resources and
exceptional environment of Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Harvard TH Chan School
of Public Health, Boston University School of Medicine, and the Framingham Study networks. Dr. Sudha
Seshadri will serve as primary mentor with Dr. Jonathan Rosand as co-mentor alongside an advisory committee
of highly experienced members, including Drs. Lisa Berkman, Charles DeCarli, JP Onnela, and Reisa Sperling.
This award will provide Dr...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9905351
- **Project number:** 5K23AG057760-03
- **Recipient organization:** MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** Joel Armando Salinas
- **Activity code:** K23 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $196,723
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-08-15 → 2020-04-16

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9905351

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9905351, Quantitative Social Phenotyping in Alzheimer's Disease (5K23AG057760-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9905351. Licensed CC0.

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