Frank LaFerla, PhD The Orange County Business Journal named Frank LaFerla, PhD, Dean of the Charlie Dunlop School of Biological Sciences, as one of the OC500 for Education. Read the recognition here
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Since 2017, UCI MIND has partnered with the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement (WAM) at Cleveland Clinic, founded by Maria Shriver, to fund the Women’s Initiative. The initiative provides funding for research to better understand why women are at higher risk than men of developing Alzheimer’s disease. This year, the UCI MIND WAM at Cleveland Clinic Women’s Initiative is proud to support two exceptional investigators at UCI with groundbreaking research projects: Dr. María Corrada, Professor of Neurology in the School of Medicine and Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the Joe C. Wen School of Public Health, will explore "Estrogen Replacement Therapy and…
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An article in the New York Times is the latest to highlight the safety risks associated with recently approved new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, lecanemab and donanemab. Being a carrier of the e4 genotype for the apolipoprotein (APOE) gene, is a known risk factor for the most serious side effects of these medications—swelling and bleeding in the brain collectively known as Amyloid Related Imaging Abnormalities (ARIA). The article highlights that in some of the earlier studies of these drugs, participants were not given the opportunity to learn their APOE genotypes. The field has historically been reluctant to disclose APOE results…
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RAMP trainees stand next to Dr. Lorna Carlin (middle). The Daily Breeze, a local Southern California online news source, highlighted the Research and Mentorship Program (RAMP), a collaborative training initiative between UCI MIND and the UCI School of Medicine to pair 2nd year medical students with faculty studying neurodegenerative diseases. The goal is to inspire future clinicians to pursue research and to specialize in neurology and geriatrics. The program is supported by Dr. Lorna Carlin and Hilarity for Charity, a non-profit organization started by Laura Miller-Rogen and Seth Rogen. Read the article here
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Dr. Vivek Swarup, associate professor of Neurobiology and Behavior and UCI MIND faculty member, was quoted this week in the popular online Alzheimer's disease publication, AlzForum, regarding 4 new AD risk genes that have been identified.
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We are excited to announce that in January 2025, Dr. Crystal M. Glover will join UCI MIND as the ADRC's Outreach, Recruitment, and Engagement Core Leader. She will also serve as Associate Professor of Neurology in the UC Irvine School of Medicine. Dr. Glover is a world-renowned applied social psychologist, mixed methodologist, and health disparities researcher focused on social determinants of health as it relates to aging and dementia. Along with her many international and national leadership roles, Dr. Glover is the inaugural Editor-in-Chief of Alzheimer's and Dementia: Behavior & Socioeconomics of Aging. She will continue the important work she started…
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Message from the Director Dear Friends of UCI MIND, This summer, we lost our founder, Dr. Carl Cotman. Under Dr. Cotman’s leadership, UCI became an independent ADRC in 2000. He recruited many of UCI’s most prominent researchers and leaders, such as David Cribbs, Claudia Kawas, and Frank LaFerla. He also lured UCI researchers into collaborative work on dementia, such as Andrea Tenner, Ira Lott, and Marcelo Wood. He launched the Southern California Alzheimer’s Disease Research Conference, now in its 35th year; secured the Neurobiology of Aging NIH training grant, now in its 41st year; and established the UCI ADRC brain…
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https://pennmemorycenter.org/breaking-the-tyranny-of-treatment-a-new-perspective-on-alzheimers-care/
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This Hispanic Heritage Month, we proudly recognize the invaluable contributions of our faculty, staff, community partners, and supporters who are dedicated to addressing Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias in the Hispanic and Latino communities. Our mission to advance Alzheimer’s research is strengthened by the passion and collaboration of those working on the front lines to ensure more inclusive research and care. At the forefront of these efforts is our Hispanic Community Advisory Board, led by Dr. Christian Salazar. The Board is instrumental in guiding us on best practices for building strong connections with the more than 1 million Hispanic and…
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AlzForum, the popular online publication for Alzheimer's researchers, published a summary of recent advances from the MODEL-AD teams and highlighted the work of the principal investigators at UCI, Drs. Kim Green, Andrea Tenner, and Frank LaFerla. The article also called attention to innovative research in the Green Lab, including work by postdoctoral scholar, Dr. Claire Butler and graduate student Kristine Tran. To read the article, click here.
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Dr. Leigh Turner, Professor of Health, Society and Behavior, School of Public Health As part of a collaborative project with USC and other faculty at UCI, Dr. Leigh Turner has been awarded a 2 million dollar grant from National Science Foundation to use biocomputing and stem cells to build neural networks to one day combat neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Turner's role will be to study the ethical implications of this potential technology. Read the article in UCI News.
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https://news.uci.edu/2024/08/21/uc-irvine-discovery-of-item-memory-brain-cells-offers-new-alzheimers-treatment-target/
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The New York Times recently covered a remarkable study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study performed clinical and imaging assessments of 353 adults deemed to be in a minimally conscious or persistent vegetative state. These individuals, who had experienced severe brain injury, stroke, or hypoxia after cardiac arrest were unable to respond to any verbal command. Remarkably, 25% of the patients, when assessed with MRI or EEG, demonstrated an ability to respond to commands with their brain. That is, when they were asked to imagine themselves doing something, their brain response was the same as a normal adult's…
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A recent article in the New York Times, How Poor Sleep Affects Your Risk of Dementia, summarizes some recent findings showing both excessively short and long sleep, as well as sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, insomnia, and rapid-eye movement (REM) behavior disorder, may be linked with risk for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or other forms of dementia. Our recent findings from multiple studies at UCI are consistent with this interpretation. For example, in our most recent study , in collaboration with Alzheimer Biomarkers Consortium — Down Syndrome (ABC-DS) and UCI MIND investigators, we found symptoms of insomnia were more prevalent…
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Ahmad Sajjadi, MD, PhD, was interviewed on NBCLA yesterday evening about the news that former LA County Sheriff Lee Baca who lives with Alzheimer's disease, wandered away from his home. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbxF2XsLbDg
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Message from the Director Dear Friends of UCI MIND, Please enjoy the latest issue of MIND Matters from UCI MIND. In this Spring issue, we highlight a number of exciting updates about the impact UCI MIND investigators are having in the field. On the cover, post-doctoral fellow Dr. Claire Butler highlights progress made by the collaborative MODEL-AD group, including a publication she led. Another post-doctoral fellow, Dr. Jessica Noche, highlights an exciting collaboration in which UCI MIND investigators are playing a leading role on the Ann S. Bowers Women’s Brain Health Initiative (page 4). We also highlight several awards…
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Today, the US Food and Drug Administration granted full clinical approval to Eli Lilly to market donanemab, brand name KISUNLA, for the treatment of early Alzheimer’s disease, including Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) or mild dementia. Donanemab is a monoclonal antibody against the beta-amyloid protein that accumulates in the brain of people with Alzheimer’s disease. This represents the second ever full approval for a drug that directly targets the biology of Alzheimer’s disease. Image by Andrew Harnik/AP Donanemab was shown in a Phase 2 and then in a Phase 3 trial to have a significant impact on brain amyloid burden. In…
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A June 17 article in the Los Angeles Times highlighted an important safety risk associated with the new class of medications recently approved for treating Alzheimer’s disease. The drugs are anti-amyloid monoclonal antibodies and include aducanumab, donanemab, and lecanemab. Of these, only lecanemab has achieved full FDA approval at the time of writing. The side effects are collectively known as amyloid-related imaging abnormalities, or ARIA, and are potential side effects for each of these drugs, though with differential frequencies observed across the clinical trials of these medications. The specific drug side effects include what are often referred to as bleeding…
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Today, the FDA convened its Peripheral and Central Nervous System Drugs Advisory Committee to review the data from pivotal clinical trials of donanemab, a monoclonal antibody against the beta amyloid protein that accumulates in the brain of people with Alzheimer’s disease. One of these trials was conducted at UCI MIND. The efficacy of donanemab in treating early Alzheimer’s disease in people with Mild Cognitive Impairment and mild dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease is largely agreed to have been demonstrated. The bulk of the discussion at the meeting emphasized other aspects, such as the safety…
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Dr. Bryce Mender UCI News highlighted a newly published study led by Bryce Mander, PhD, a UCI MIND faculty member and associate professor of psychiatry and human behavior, showing a link between sleep apnea and a decline in verbal memory. To read the article in UCI News, click here.
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Dr. Liz Chrastil Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Behavior and UCI MIND faculty member, Elizabeth Chrastil, PhD, is featured in a Wall Street Journal article about studying her own brain in an MRI during pregnancy. To read the article and learn more about Dr. Chrastil's research, click here
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In an interview with Medical News Today, Dr. Ahmad Sajjadi says that, "having a ‘perfect memory’ can lead to redundant information...” To read the article on differentiating between normal aging and dementia, click here.
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Dr. Daniel Gillen Daniel Gillen, PhD, Chancellor's Professor and Chair of Statistics and the leader for the ADRC Data Management and Statistics Core was recently named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Dr. Gillen will be honored in September in Washington D.C. for this rare achievement.
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The UC Irvine School of Medicine recognized the 2024 best mentors and Elizabeth Head, PhD, Professor and Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine was awarded the Basic Science Faculty Mentor of the Year. Dr. Head leads the Research Education Component (REC) of the UCI MIND Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and co-leads the TITAN T32 training grant.
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For patients experiencing cognitive decline due to Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), choosing the most appropriate treatment course at the right time is of great importance. A key element to these decisions is the careful consideration of the available scientific evidence, particularly from randomized clinical trials (RCTs) such as the recent lecanemab trial. Translating RCT results into patient-level decisions, however, can be challenging. This is because trial results tell us about the outcomes of groups rather than individuals. A doctor must judge how similar their patient is to the groups studied in trials. For AD, where patients vary widely in clinical presentations…
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Jessica Noche, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar and REMIND co-chair recently published an article in the Journal of Neuroscience with UCI MIND faculty, Craig Stark, PhD, and Elizabeth Head, PhD, on the importance of playtime and socialization to increase regional brain size in aging beagles. Read their article and the summary of the study in Health Day
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As we celebrate Women's History Month this March, we also find ourselves at a historic moment in scientific inquiry for women’s health research. Today, nearly two-thirds of Americans with Alzheimer’s disease are women, but the underlying cause of this sex disparity is still poorly understood. For decades, research focusing on women's health has been inadequate, with a mere 0.5% of all neuroimaging studies conducted over the past 25 years focusing on women's health. The potential to reach new heights in our understanding of the brain, especially today in the era of “big data” and artificial intelligence, is promising, but requires…
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Ahmad Sajjadi, MD, PhD Ahmad Sajjadi, MD, PhD, UCI Neurologist and UCI MIND faculty member, was quoted in Healthline regarding the recent announcement by FDA to delay the decision to approve Eli Lilly's amyloid targeting drug, donanemab. Click here to read the article.
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Tianchen Qian, PhD Ahmad Sajjadi, MD, PhD UCI MIND faculty member and UCI Neurologist, Ahmad Sajjadi, MD, PhD, awarded UCI Institute for Precision Health Pilot Award. Dr. Sajjadi will work with Tianchen Qian, PhD, a REC trainee and assistant professor of Statistics at UCI to study early detection of AD using deep machine learning. For a description of the project and to see other awarded projects, click here.
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The FDA today announced that it will convene an advisory panel to review the data submitted to support potential approval of donanemab, a monoclonal antibody against the beta amyloid protein that demonstrated efficacy in early Alzheimer’s disease in a recent Phase 3 clinical trial. A positive decision to approve donanemab had been expected before the end of this month. Though data for donanemab’s ability to lower brain amyloid levels are convincing, the FDA had opted not to grant accelerated approval to the drug, citing limited safety data. This contrasted the agency’s decisions for two other amyloid-lowering drugs, aducanumab and lecanemab…
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Message from the Director Dear Friends of UCI MIND, Happy New Year! We hope that 2024 is off to a positive start for you. As we embark upon a new year, UCI MIND and the field of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) research are abuzz with excitement about progress made and opportunities to further advance our field. At the end of 2023, we held our annual signature fundraising event, the December to Remember Gala. We honored Lauren Miller Rogen and Seth Rogen, the founders of Hilarity for Charity (HFC) and our partners in a program to mentor and inspire…
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Ahmad Sajjadi, MD, PhD, a UCI Neurologist and UCI MIND faculty member was interviewed live on NBC Los Angeles about the recent announcement that talk show host Wendy Williams has been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Watch the interviews here: 4pm and 7pm broadcasts
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Amyloid PET scan The LA Times recently published a fairly negative appraisal of the construct of preclinical Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The article described the recent effort by an international committee to update diagnostic criteria that date back to 1984, updated in 2011 and again in 2018. The most recent updates have been presented at meetings and published online and have indeed been the source of debate and disagreement in the field. But the LA Times article goes quite a bit further, essentially asking if one particular aspect of the criteria—the definition of preclinical AD—exists mainly to benefit pharmaceutical and medical…
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Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe Biogen, the maker of aducanumab has announced that it will terminate the Phase 4 trial required by the FDA for aducanumab, the monoclonal antibody against beta amyloid that received accelerated approval in 2021. The company is also halting production of the compound and relinquishing ownership rights to the original developer, Neurimmune. Accelerated approval was based on the demonstration in multiple studies that treatment with aducanumab could lower brain amyloid in people with Alzheimer’s disease. But two Phase 3 trials gave contrasting results about aducanumab’s efficacy, preventing the FDA from granting full clinical approval for the medication.…
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The medications have not been widely tested in Black people with the disease, underscoring stark — and persistent — disparities Robert Williford, 67, receives a dose of Leqembi at Abington Neurological Associates in Abington, Pa. (Hannah Yoon for The Washington Post) ABINGTON, Pa. — Wrapped in a purple blanket, Robert Williford settles into a quiet corner of a bustling neurology clinic, an IV line delivering a colorless liquid into his left arm. The 67-year-old, who has early Alzheimer’s disease, is getting his initial dose of Leqembi. The drug is the first to clearly slow the fatal neurodegenerative ailment that afflicts 6.7…
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Black people know intrinsically about the myriad of life areas negatively impacted by the fact that the myth of white supremacy is baked into the foundations of all American institutions. But one area that doesn’t get enough attention is how racism robs Blacks of one of nature’s most powerful healing agents – sleep. Blacks have disproportionately higher rates of sleep disorders (sleep apnea, insomnia, more light and less deep sleep, delayed onset, more daytime sleepiness, and shorter sleep duration) compared to any other racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. These disparities are compounded by the fact that they contribute…
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Scientists in an MRI control area plan a focused ultrasound treatment at West Virginia University's Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute. (Victor Finomore/WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute/AP) In the first study of its kind in humans, researchers have discovered that it is safe to use sound waves fired into specific areas of the brain to open a protective barrier and clear the way for Alzheimer’s medications. The study, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, involved just three patients, but it raises hope about the long-term potential of the treatment strategy known as focused ultrasound. Joshua Grill, professor of psychiatry and human behavior…
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93 colored candles on a cake are being lit. (Getty Images) TAMPA (BLOOM) – Join us as we explore strategies—from mindful living to emerging technologies—and discover how every choice can lead to a longer and healthier life. Welcome to the science of aging, where the pursuit of health and happiness is the entire goal. Lifestyle Habits for Longevity Avoiding Harmful Substances In the pursuit of a longer, healthier life, steering clear of harmful substances is an obvious decision. Dr. Claudia Kawas, a distinguished neurologist at the University of California, Irvine, sounds the alarm on two major culprits: smoking and excessive alcohol…
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Joshua Grill, Professor, Psychiatry & Human Behavior. photo: Steve Zylius/UCI UCI MIND Director, Dr. Joshua Grill, is quoted in Neurology Today for his work with colleagues at USC, Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Eisai on racial and ethnic disparities in eligibility for Alzheimer's disease clinical trials. To read the article, click here.
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