How are loneliness, isolation and elder abuse connected and what role has the COVID-19 pandemic played? The OC Aging Services Collaborative invites you learn the answer at the upcoming #WorldElderAbuseAwarenessDay webinar. Learn more here: http://bit.ly/WEAAD2021
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Contributed by Hamsi Radhakrishnan Organ transplant recipients are significantly less likely to develop dementia compared to the general population; perhaps because the drugs they take to suppress their immune system to prevent donor organ rejection could also be curbing neuroinflammation. To assess whether these drugs could be repurposed as dementia-preventing medication in middle-aged adults, we studied the effects one year treatment with the FDA-approved immunosuppressant Tacrolimus had on the beagle brain. Using advanced diffusion MRI, we found that tacrolimus protected against aging-related microstructural changes that are often associated with cognitive decline, specifically in the hippocampus, parahippocampal cortex, prefrontal cortex and…
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Message from the Director Dear Friends of UCI MIND, Spring has sprung and there is much to look forward to. COVID-19 infections remain low in Orange County. We are grateful to our colleagues from UCI Health who have done an incredible job of caring for people during the pandemic and navigating us toward an end through well-organized vaccination programs. We are planning resumption of our pre-pandemic research activities. The campus has reduced restrictions on in-person research while maintaining essential safety parameters. There is a collective sense of eagerness to “catch-up” on work delayed by the pandemic. This will include UCI…
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UCI MIND Faculty Member Christine Gall, PhD, a neuroscientist and professor of anatomy and neurobiology at UC Irvine’s School of Medicine, explains that our brains contain specialized cells, or neurons, that are responsible for sending and receiving information. Much like a circuit board in a computer, our brains create networks of neurons that transmit electrical activity when we engage in just about anything. These charges, AKA synapses, are critical for learning and memory.
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JOIN US FOR A FREE VIRTUAL CONFERENCE: "Alzheimer's from all angles" About the Conference Join Alzheimer’s Orange County and UCI MIND for the 32nd Annual Southern California Alzheimer’s Disease Research Conference. This free, half-day, virtual conference will cover a wide range of topics concerning Alzheimer’s disease, from updates on research, to treatments, diagnostics, risk factors, and genetic resilience. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on brain health will also be discussed. Friday, September 10, 2021, 8AM-12PM PT Free and open to the public Livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube Who Should Attend? Healthcare Providers Senior and Social Service Providers Researchers Students…
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Bob and Marlene Lippman in their home. “Bob had a very strong intellect,” Ms. Lippman said. “It is hard that that part of him is being attacked.”Credit...Jackie Molloy for The New York Times The single most consistent barrier to progress in Alzheimer’s disease treatment development is low rates of participation in research. To learn about clinical trials at UCI MIND, visit https://www.mind.uci.edu/research-studies/participate/. To enroll in the C2C Registry and give researchers permission to let you know about new studies for which you might be eligible, visit c2c.uci.edu.
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Dr. Steven Tam, together with colleagues in the UCI School of Medicine's Division of Geriatric Medicine & Gerontology at UC Irvine and Alzheimer’s Orange County are leading the effort to provide more accurate information and better resources to patients with AD and their caregivers. To learn more, click here.
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Contributed by Hye-Won (Grace) Shin, PhD UCI MIND stands against racism, hate and violence. We laud the US Senate overwhelmingly passing the anti-Asian American hate crime bill Thursday, April 22, 2021. We stand with our Asian American researchers, physician scientists, research participants, patients and their caregivers and our broader Asian community members. As we painfully witnessed, hate crimes, physical attacks and deplorable rhetoric against Asians across the United States have escalated. According to the research report by the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, hate crimes targeting Asians in the first quarter…
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Contributed by Stefania Forner, PhD Most cases of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are late-onset and occur sporadically; however, the majority of AD animal models are based on rare genetic mutations, making them good models of the less common familial AD, which accounts for 1% of all cases. As treatments effective in these mouse models have proven ineffective in humans, there is a clear need to develop new models that better represent the more common, late-onset sporadic form of AD. With this in mind, my colleagues and I at UCI MIND used a different approach in a recent study published in Nature…
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