Commentary

How much medical care would you want if you had Alzheimer’s disease or another type of dementia? A dementia-focused advance directive developed by experts in neurology, geriatrics, and palliative care, allows people to plan ahead and communicate their wishes if they were to develop dementia, stage by stage. Standard advance directives (also known as living wills) do not typically cover dementia, and families are faced with difficult medical decisions for their loved ones. A dementia directive can help people make medical choices for themselves in advance, guiding family members and healthcare providers to take actions that reflect those choices. To learn…

ENGLISH | VIETNAMESE (Tiếng Việt)   Contributed by Hye-Won Shin, PhD Four executive orders signed by President Biden Tuesday, January 26, 2021 aim at promoting racial equity in the US. One specifically pinpointed fighting xenophobia against Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI). Misinformation and stigmatization related to the COVID-19 pandemic provoked a surge in anti-Asian xenophobia. Thousands of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have reported the pandemic-fueled hate crimes and physical attacks throughout the United States. These physical, social, and emotional challenges can cause profound damage to Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and may leave lasting scars in AAPI community…

Contributed by UCI Health: Plans to build a world-class, acute care hospital on the northern edge of the University of California, Irvine academic campus advanced significantly last week, as the University of California Board of Regents granted approval of the project’s 144-bed acute care facility, ambulatory care center and cancer center. The hospital will focus on key clinical programs such as oncology, neurology, neurosurgery, orthopedics and digestive health, and it will include a 24-hour emergency department. The first patients are expected in late 2022 in the UCI Health Center for Advanced Care, pending legal and regulatory approvals, and the hospital…

We are excited to announce that Governor Newsom along with many partners, including the California Department of Aging, has released the California Master Plan for Aging earlier this week. Irvine Health Foundation has been participating in the Master Plan along with other foundation partners. Please check out the California Master Plan on Aging and share this plan through your platforms using the hashtag #MasterPlanForAging California Master Plan on Aging: https://mpa.aging.ca.gov

“As part of HFC’s Science Advisory Board, I will continue our great work in pairing students and faculty to research brain aging and Alzheimer’s disease. Excited for all that is to come from the partnership between HFC and UCI MIND!” – Joshua Grill, Director of UCI MIND To read more about our new program, in partnership with the nonprofit HFC led by Lauren & Seth Rogen, community philanthropist Dr. Loran Carlin, and the UCI School of Medicine, click here >

Dear friends of UCI MIND, Last week, Maria Shriver and the Governor’s Task Force on Alzheimer’s Prevention and Preparedness presented a report describing their 10 recommendations to Governor Gavin Newsom. Click here to view the report. The Governor was extremely receptive to the recommendations. We anticipate movement in the coming months to years on these important initiatives to improve the lives of Californians living with dementia and their families and to increase Alzheimer’s awareness, risk reduction education, and research. We would like to thank the many UCI MIND stakeholders who participated in the Task Force listening session as part of…

The 90+ Study, co-led by UCI MIND faculty members Drs. Claudia Kawas and Maria Corrada, will be featured in the show “60 Minutes” this Sunday, November 22 on CBS. The episode will be a follow-up of the study participants who were featured on the show six years ago and an update on research findings since then. Learn more about the feature in the articles below: Lesley Stahl follows up with nonagenarians from landmark study on aging Is there a secret to living well into your 90s?

In 2016, UCI MIND launched a local recruitment registry – the UCI Consent-to-Contact (C2C) Registry – to raise awareness of research participation opportunities at UCI (c2c.uci.edu). We are excited to announce that this fall, the UCI C2C went live in Spanish, Korean, Chinese, and Vietnamese to allow more people to access this online tool. Together with our diverse community, we will improve our understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias in diverse populations and find solutions for people of all backgrounds. To learn more about enrolling in C2C, visit c2c.uci.edu > To read more in our latest newsletter, click here >

Many of us listened intently today as the US Food and Drug Administration convened a panel of expert members of an advisory committee to review the submitted materials for potential approval of Biogen’s candidate treatment for early Alzheimer’s disease, aducanumab. The meeting was notable on many levels. Advocates made clear and compelling demonstrations of why new therapies are so desperately needed for this disease. The experts, however, were equally clear that the available data from a still limited number of studies, only one of which was actually positive, do not meet the current standards for drug approval in the United…

The FDA will today convene an advisory committee to review and discuss the application submitted by Biogen Inc. for aducanumab for the treatment of early Alzheimer’s disease. Though mixed opinions remain about whether the FDA should approve aducanumab at this time, the submission of a new treatment entity for Alzheimer’s disease is nonetheless good news and an important milestone. It has been nearly two decades since a new drug was approved for Alzheimer’s disease and no approved drug can effectively slow or stop the debilitating progression of this fatal neurodegenerative disease. Regardless of the outcome of this specific submission, we…

Amanda McQuade, graduate student in Mathew Blurton-Jones’ lab at UCI MIND, discusses findings from their new study using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC), donated from participants at the UCI Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, and CRISPR gene editing to improve understanding of the role of immunity in Alzheimer’s disease. Click below to view the video, and access the publication at this link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-19227-5     Amanda McQuade, MS Amanda McQuade is a graduate student in the department of Neurobiology and Behavior working with Dr. Mathew Blurton-Jones. Her graduate work focuses on using CRISPR to study risk mutations for Alzheimer’s disease in human...

The actual number of deaths linked to dementia may be about three times greater than what is reported on U.S. death certificates, according to a recent NIA-supported study. The findings were published online August 24, 2020, in JAMA Neurology. Previous studies have established that doctors and medical examiners may be underreporting Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias as an underlying cause of death on death certificates. To investigate whether the impact from the underreporting was substantial, a research team led by investigators at Boston University compared dementia-related deaths determined by a nationally representative study to what is reported on death certificates….

Congratulations to Maria Shriver for being selected as Variety’s Entertainment Philanthropist of the Year for her trailblazing Alzheimer’s advocacy! UCI MIND is honored to partner with Shriver and her organization, the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement (WAM), to unravel why 2 out of every 3 people with Alzheimer’s are women. Thanks to Shriver and other local philanthropists, the UCI MIND-WAM Women’s Initiative has now awarded $400,000 to UCI scientists for sex and gender disparities research. Variety: “So much of my work is about awareness, prevention, funding of research and trying to educate people about something they think they don’t have to worry…