NIH has awarded a nearly $1.8 million grant to train diverse students in Alzheimer’s and aging research. The team of students will be led by Archana McEligot, Cal State Fullerton professor of public health. The project is entitled “Neurocognitive Aging and Analytics Research Education". The grant is aimed at adding more diverse trained scientists in aging research to help address age-related health disparities, such as ADRD within African American, Latinx, and Native Americans/Alaskans communities.
"Their Mind Gets a Fever": Dementia presents unique challenges for Native peoples. Until recently, the life expectancy of Native peoples was significantly less than the rest of the U.S. population. Now, it is only 5.5 years lower. With this increase in life expectancy, a prevalence of dementia has also been on the rise. Many tribes are under-resourced in addressing dementia. Further, some tribes do not have a word for dementia and instead describe dementia as the mind getting a fever. Visit here to see some of the important work being done to provide more ADRD resources and ADRD education to Native communities.
The American Heart Association in partnership with Bill Gates are funding a $3.3 million health technology research joint initiative. The funds will go in part toward a new brain health and dementia technology research center at Boston University. Funding will also support research scientists working to find new discoveries related to heart and brain health, including the early detection and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Learn more here.
Upcoming events we are looking forward to!
Namaste Care International Virtual Conference on September 24th. The event is designed for care, nursing staff, managers and CEOs. Learn more here.
Annual Aging Conference on October 1st. The event will highlight mportant advocates promoting the independence, dignity, and rights of older and disabled adults. Learn more here.
International Conference on Alzheimer's Drug Discovery on October 4th-5th. The event showcases the work of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation’s (ADDF) funded scientists as well as guest presentations on the latest research in the AD field. Learn more here.
National Adult Day Services Association on October 14 -16th. Adult day center providers, educators, and adovates working to better the lives of adults in adult day programs will present including Mike Splaine of Recruitment Partners and Splaine Consulting and Jeff Klein of Nevada Senior Services on their hospital2home work. Learn more here.
NIA-AA Symposium: Enabling Precision Medicine for Alzheimer’s Disease Through Open Science on October 27- 28th. The event will feature dementia research programs that employ precision medicine principles and open-science practice. Learn more here.
Do you have, or are you a caregiver of a person diagnosed with AD? Do you live in the San Diego area? You may benefit from participating in the UCSD Alzheimer's Disease Research Study. You or your loved one will receive an FDA approved treatment for AD free of cost. To learn more, CLICK HERE to view the UCSD Study flyer.
Daniel Jones took off from John O'Groats in Scotland on August 16th and arrived at Land's End in England on August 23rd. The fundraising flight was made in tribute to his grandparents who had Alzheimer's and vascular dementia. Daniel Jones' chariy flight surpassed the £2,021 goal, raising more than £7,000.
Many researchers are exploring new, non-invasive ways to help detect the earliest stages of ADRD. These studies are looking into possible early indicators such as driving or financial records or other behaviors. “It’s all about finding people soon enough to intervene and prevent or delay the onset of the disease,” said Emily Largent, a medical ethicist and health policy researcher at the Penn Memory Center in Philadelphia. Learn more here.
Since dementia is so varied and complex, researchers are studying many different kinds of detections, therapies, and treatments. Researchers are exploring a variety of potential risk-factors and indicators of dementia including amyloid plaques and tau tangles, viral infections, inflammation, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and more.
Learn more about this research here.
Interested in learning how RP makes connections between care communities and researchers?
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