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Research Education Component

Led by Dr. Elizabeth Head, The Research Education Component (REC) of the UCI Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) works closely with all Cores to provide training and mentorship opportunities for students and early career investigators in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD) research and healthcare.

The REC training program aims to generate the next cutting-edge, innovative and collaborative generation of ADRD researchers. The underlying educational principle is to provide foundational training (e.g., professional skills, learning to mentor, basics of ADRD) and build on this with mentoring in a team science collaborative environment that will facilitate bench to clinic research. Specifically, by providing two mentors, one who serves as the primary mentor within the trainee’s research environment and a second mentor, who is an ADRD area outside of the trainee’s primary research area.

Leadership:

Meet the Trainees

Get to know the next generation of ADRD researchers

Announcements

Upcoming events, workshops, and newsworthy information

Seminar Series

Presentations and Q&A with distinguished speakers

Video Library

Research education content for students, investigators, and the general community

Coming soon!

RAMP

Research And Mentorship Program

UCI MIND Fellowship

Research and training for new clinician investigators focused on senior health

IMPACT-AD

Institute on Methods and Protocols for Advancement of Clinical Trials in ADRD

Meet the Trainees

Get to know the next generation of ADRD researchers

Assistant Project Scientist

Soyun Kim, PhD

Neurobiology & Behavior

Assistant Project Scientist
Neurobiology & Behavior
Assistant Clinical Professor

Ariel Neikrug, PhD

Psychiatry & Human Behavior

Assistant Clinical Professor
Psychiatry & Human Behavior
Assistant Clinical Professor

Minodora Totoiu, MD

Pediatric Neurology

Assistant Clinical Professor
Pediatric Neurology
Assistant Professor

Lulu Chen, PhD

Anatomy & Neurobiology

Assistant Professor
Anatomy & Neurobiology
Assistant Professor

Bryce Mander, PhD

Psychiatry & Human Behavior

Assistant Professor
Psychiatry & Human Behavior

Announcements

Upcoming events, workshops, and newsworthy information

TITAN T-32 Training Grant

Predoctoral and Postdoctoral appointments are available immediately as part of a multi-interdisciplinary training program that focuses on training a new generation of ADRD scientists, especially scientists with the unique training and skills necessary to design and perform translational research.

These training positions are funded by the NIA through the Training in Translational ADRD Neuroscience, or TITAN (T32AG073088), under the leadership of MPIs Joshua Grill and Elizabeth Head. Faculty affiliated with UCI’s NIA-funded Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center from the Schools of Biological Sciences, Medicine, Physical Sciences, Information & Computer Sciences and Social Sciences, and the Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders (UCI MIND) are part of this interdisciplinary training program.

This program will provide novel and necessary training to prepare investigators to lead the nation in research to reduce the impact of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD).

Postdoctoral applicants must possess a MD, PhD, or equivalent graduate degree. These positions are funded by a NIH training grant. As such, eligible candidates must be a U.S. citizen or a non-citizen national of the United States or have been lawfully admitted for permanent residence at the time of appointment. Evaluations are on-going and will continue until the positions are filled. Initial appointments are for one year and renewal is based on availability of support.

Faculty with eligible candidates, please send a letter of nomination, description of the trainees’ project and curriculum vitae to Andrea Wasserman at awasserm@uci.edu.

Training in the Neurobiology of Aging

The University of California, Irvine’s Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders (UCI MIND) training program has a solid track record over its 34-year history of producing highly successful scientists who enter academia or apply their training and knowledge in private industry to address dementia, a challenging and serious health problem for the nation and our growing senior population.

This multi-interdisciplinary training program, led by Drs. Carl Cotman and Andrea Tenner, emphasizes preparation and instruction in the application of molecular and quantitative approaches to the elucidation of the cellular and molecular mechanisms of age-related neurodegeneration, brain plasticity during aging, and age-related changes in learning and memory. Faculty from the Schools of Biological Sciences, Medicine, Information and Computer Sciences, and from UCI MIND are part of the training program.

For more information please contact Andrea Wasserman, the training program administrator, at awasserm@uci.edu.

Seminar Series

Some of the Spring 2022 seminar sessions below will be available via Zoom/hybrid. If you are a UCI student, staff, or faculty member and are interested in joining future seminars, email kleinkm@uci.edu.

Towfique Raj, PhD

Assistant Professor, Neuroscience, Genetics and Genomic Sciences
Icahn School of Medicine, Mt. Sinai

“Integrative Functional Genomics for Target and Biomarker Discovery in Neurodegenerative Disease”

June 2, 2022 @11am
Natural Sciences I 1114

Michael Wolfe, PhD

Mathias P. Mertes Professor of Medicinal Chemistry
University of Kansas

“γ-Secretase Function and Dysfunction in Familial Alzheimer’s Disease”

May 26, 2022 @11am
Natural Sciences I 1114

Avindra Nath, PhD

Clinical Director of NINDS
Director of the Translational Neuroscience Center
Chief of the Section of Infections of the Nervous System

“Neuropathogenesis of COVID-19”

May 19, 2022 @11am
Natural Sciences I 1114

Edwin Monuki, MD, PhD

Warren L. Bostick Professor and Chair, Pathology, Professor of Developmental & Cell Biology
University of California, Irvine

“Why you should care about the choroid plexus”

May 12, 2022 @11am
Herklotz Conference Room

Claire Henchcliffe, MD

Chair and Stanley van den Noort Professor of Neurology
University of California, Irvine

“MCI and dementia in Parkinson’s disease: How do we meet the challenge”

May 5, 2022 @11am
Natural Sciences I 1114

Rana Zadeh, PhD

Associate Professor, Human Centered Design, Systems Engineering
Cornell University

“Designing environments and technologies to support the aging body and brain”

April 7, 2022 @11am
Natural Sciences I 1114

Bruce Miller, MD

A.W. and Mary Margaret Clausen Distinguished Professorship
Neurology
University of California, San Francisco

“Advances in frontotemporal dementia: from diagnosis to treatment”

March 3, 2022 @11am
Virtual Event on Zoom

Robert Thorne, PhD

Adjunct Associate Professor
Pharmaceutics
University of Minnesota

“Engineering drug delivery to the brain: new antibody and enzyme treatments for neurodegeneration”

February 17, 2022 @11am
Natural Sciences I 1114

Barb Bendlin, PhD

Professor
Geriatrics and Gerontology
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health

“From micro to macro and back again: reducing dementia burden through the study of modifiable risk factors”

February 10, 2022 @11am
Virtual Event on Zoom

David Holtzman, BS, MD

Professor and Chair
Neurology
Washington University in St. Louis

“The role of APOE in Aβ and tau mediated pathogenesis of AD”

January 20, 2022 @11am
Virtual Event on Zoom

Kenneth S. Kosik, MA, MD

Harriman Professor
Neuroscience Research
University of California, Santa Barbara

“A Rite of Passage: Tau’s Route Between and Within Cells”

January 13, 2022 @11am
Virtual Event on Zoom

Omonigho M. Bubu, PhD

Assistant Professor
Psychiatry and Population Health
NYU Grossman School of Medicine

“Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Amyloid and Tau Burden, and Alzheimer’s Disease Time-Dependent Progression”

December 2, 2021 @11am

Elizabeth Mormino, PhD

Assistant Professor
Neurology
Stanford University

“Subtyping Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease: Typical, Atypical, and Resilient”

November 4, 2021 @11am

Xiangmin Xu, PhD

Professor
Anatomy & Neurobiology
University of California, Irvine

“Illuminating learning and memory neural circuits in health and disease”

October 28, 2021 @11am

Oanh Meyer, PhD, MAS

Associate Professor
Department of Neurology
University of California, Davis

“Cultural and Contextual Considerations in Dementia Research with Asian Americans”

October 14, 2021 @11am

Jessica Rexach, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor
University of California, Los Angeles

“Functional Genomics Approach to Neuronal-Glial Mechanisms in Neurodegenerative Dementias”

October 7, 2021 @11am

Andrew Huh, PhD

Senior Medical Science Liaison
Alzheimer’s disease section
Biogen

“Updates on EMERGE/ENGAGE trial and Biogen’s open label safety study EMBARK”

June 3, 2021 @11am

David Bennett, MD

Professor
Department of Neurological Sciences
Rush University

“Identifying novel therapeutic targets for Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders”

May 27, 2021 @11am

Grace Stutzmann, PhD

Professor
Department of Neuroscience
Rosalind Franklin University

“Shared neuronal pathophysiology in AD mouse models and human induced neurons”

May 6, 2021 @11am

Martin Kampmann, PhD

Associate Professor
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics
University of California, San Francisco

“CRISPR-based functional genomics in iPSC models of brain disease”

April 22, 2021 @11am

Pinar Ayata, PhD

Assistant Professor
Advanced Science Research Center
City University of New York

“Functional specialization of microglia in
health and disease”

April 15, 2021 @11am

Jean-Pierre Roussarie, PhD

Senior Research Associate
Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience
Rockefeller University

““Molecular dissection of selective neuronal vulnerability in Alzheimer’s disease”

April 8, 2021 @11am

Rema Raman, PhD

Professor
Department of Neurology
University of Southern California

“Challenges and innovations in the design and analysis of Alzheimer’s disease clinical trials”

March 11, 2021 @11am

Dana Tudorascu, PhD

Associate Professor
Department of Psychiatry
University of Pittsburgh

“Clinical and statistical challenges in analyzing data from Alzheimer’s Disease studies”

March 4, 2021 @11am

Yadong Huang, MD, PhD

Professor
Department of Pathology, Neurology
UCSF/Gladstone Institute

“Neuronal ApoE Drives Selective Neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s Disease”

February 25, 2021 @11am

Elizabeth Chrastil, PhD

Assistant Professor
Department of Neurobiology and Behavior
University of California, Irvine

“Using spatial navigation to understand human learning and memory”

February 11, 2021 @11am

Shane Liddelow, PhD

Assistant Professor
Department of Neuroscience and Physiology
New York University

“What do reactive astrocytes (really) do?”

February 4, 2021 @ 11am

Steven Greenberg, MD, PhD

Professor
Department of Neurology
Harvard University/Massachusetts General Hospital

“Taking the Shortcut: Biomarkers for Cerebral Small Vessel Disease”

January 21, 2021 @ 11am

Donna Wilcock, PhD

Professor
Department of Physiology
University of Kentucky

“Integration of mouse and human studies for biomarker discovery in VCID”

January 14, 2021 @ 11am

Andrew Huh, PhD

Senior Medical Science Liaison
Alzheimer’s Disease Section
Biogen

“Overview of Phase III studies EMERGE and ENGAGE for Aducanumab”

December 3, 2020

Timothy Hughes, PhD

Assistant Professor
Department of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine
Wake Forest University

“Subclinical Vascular Contributions to Alzheimer’s and
Related Dementias”

November 12, 2020

Daniel Nation, PhD

Associate Professor
Department of Psychological Science
University of California, Irvine

“Improving Diagnostic Classification by Operationalizing
Decline on Serial Cognitive Testing”

November 5, 2020

John Fryer, PhD

Associate Professor
Department of Neuroscience
Mayo Clinic

“Lipoprotein and inflammatory pathways in Alzheimer’s disease”

October 22, 2020

Emily Largent, PhD, JD, RN

Assistant Professor
Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy
University of Pennsylvania

“Study Partners in Alzheimer’s Disease Research – What We Learn, What They Learn”

October 8, 2020

Sarah Hernandez, PhD

Postdoctoral Scholar (Thompson Lab)
Department of Neurobiology and Behavior
University of California, Irvine

“Using iPSC-derived cell models to explore extracellular matrix dysregulation in Huntington’s disease”

October 1, 2020

Research and Mentorship Program (RAMP)

In partnership with UCI School of Medicine, UCI MIND launched a new Research And Mentorship Program (RAMP) for medical students in summer 2020. The program, made possible by support from community philanthropist Dr. Lorna Carlin and the nonprofit HFC led by Seth Rogen and Lauren Miller Rogen, pairs medical students with UCI MIND faculty mentors to inspire scientific ideas and future careers in dementia research and care.

As the field presently grapples with a serious shortage of geriatric healthcare professionals, this program aims to create a pipeline of enthusiastic trainees who, motivated by their experiences and mentorship, choose medical careers to advance knowledge and care for older adults.

Three talented students have been selected for the inaugural summer program and projects are already underway.

The students will present their projects to colleagues at the conclusion of the program and have the opportunity to publish results in peer-reviewed journals to be shared with Alzheimer’s and dementia researchers worldwide.

For more information about UCI MIND RAMP or questions on how to help sustain it, please contact Linda Scheck at lscheck@uci.edu.

HFC founders, Lauren Miller Rogen and Seth Rogen virtually congratulated UCI MIND RAMP inaugural trainees

Joseph Bishop is working with UCI MIND faculty mentor Mark Mapstone, PhD, to study connections in metabolic changes in liver, blood, and brain of 5XFAD mice models.

Synder Burger is working with UCI MIND faculty mentor Steven Tam, MD, to study caregiver training programs in Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders.

Amber Duong is working with UCI MIND faculty mentors Elizabeth Head, PhD and Ira Lott, MD, to study amygdala Lewy bodies in adults with Down syndrome in a clinical context.

Hannah Nguyen is working with UCI MIND faculty mentor Ahmad Sajjadi, MD, PhD, to identify the risk factors and contribution of arteriolosclerosis to cognitive impairment in the oldest old.

Victoria Nguyen is working with UCI MIND faculty mentor David Sultzer, MD, to study neuropsychiatric symptoms and Alzheimer’s disease risk differences in racial and ethnic minorities.

Olivia Yanes is working with UCI MIND faculty mentor Melissa Lodoen, PhD, vice chair and professor of molecular biology and biochemistry, on how microglia interact with amyloid plaques in a neuroinflammatory state due to T. gondii infection.

Jeremy Rouanet is working with UCI MIND faculty mentor Elizabeth Head, PhD, professor and vice chair for research of pathology, to study identification and characterization of blood-based biomarkers of AD in the DS population.

Lauren Houchin is working with UCI MIND faculty mentor Kim Green, PhD, professor of neurobiology & behavior, to conduct immunohistochemical staining, slide-scanning, and confocal microscopy to characterize the pathology in mouse models of AD.

Yueqi Ren is working with UCI MIND faculty mentor Craig Stark, PhD, professor of neurobiology & behavior, on predicting Alzheimer’s disease status and cognitive decline using multi-modal machine learning methods.

Isabella Sanchez is working with UCI MIND faculty mentor Leslie Thompson, PhD, professor of psychiatry & human behavior, neurobiology & behavior, and biological chemistry to study Huntington’s disease.

Raumin Neuville is working with UCI MIND faculty mentor Claudia Kawas, MD, professor of neurology and neurobiology and behavior, to study the relationship between cognitive functioning and neuropathology among people aged 100 and older, or centenarians.

Catriona Lewis is working with UCI MIND faculty mentor David Sultzer, MD, professor of psychiatry and human behavior, to evaluate the relationships between beta amyloid accumulation in the brain and mood/anxiety symptoms in asymptomatic older adults at risk for Alzheimer’s disease.

Eric Han is working with UCI MIND faculty mentor Mark Fisher, MD, professor of neurology, to study the relationship between cognitive decline, cerebral microvascular disease, and uremic toxins (compounds usually filtered and excreted by the kidneys) among patients with chronic kidney disease.

UCI MIND Fellowship

Since Harriet Harris facilitated the partnership in 2018, the Brethren Community Foundation has contributed $350,000 to research and training at UCI MIND. With its dual focus on education, the Foundation took a special interest in supporting fellowships for new clinician investigators focused on senior health.

So far, the partnership has resulted in the recruitment of two neuropsychologist fellows, Jean Ho, PhD and Jung Jang, PhD.

Dr. Ho’s research focuses on the link between blood pressure medication use in older adults and potential cognitive bene ts. As part of her fellowship at UCI MIND, Dr. Ho will receive training in the design and analysis of clinical trials to test this association, which may have implications to future dementia prevention.

Dr. Jang’s research focuses on the understudied emotional and behavioral symptoms associated with dementia, and she has already published several important ndings on this topic. As a UCI MIND fellow, she aims to improve understanding of how vascular damage to the brain may contribute to these symptoms, hopefully providing insights to potential new assessments and treatments for dementia.

The Foundation considers its grant recipients partners in the mission to improve the well-being of its community, and UCI MIND is a proud partner and witness to the power of leadership demonstrated by the Foundation. Together, community leaders and UCI MIND can and will solve Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias and improve circumstances for future generations.

Drs. Jean Ho (left) and Jung Jang (right) were awarded UCI MIND Fellowships supported by the Brethren Community Foundation.

Institute on Methods and Protocols for Advancement of Clinical Trials in ADRD (IMPACT-AD)

IMPACT-AD was founded to train the next generation of ADRD clinical trialists, to ensure that investments in discovery yield outcomes for patients and families. Our goal is to provide education and tools to establish a national cohort of qualified investigators to guide the field toward improved therapies.

Equally importantly, we are focused on diversifying the ADRD trial workforce. This diversity is manifold: it includes the demographic characteristics of investigators (age, race, ethnicity, etc.), but also their specialties (physicians, psychologists, statisticians, etc.), backgrounds (rural, urban, etc.), and career stage or current position (current AD Clinical Trial Consortium (ACTC) site, non-ACTC academic site, non-academic site).

IMPACT-AD will be successful if it produces an outstanding, well-trained, diverse, and knowledgeable cohort of collaborative investigators who will carry the mantle of the National Plan to Address AD.

IMPACT-AD will leverage the outstanding collection of investigators, including members of the ACTC and beyond. National and international leaders in ADRD trials will gather annually to provide a unique, interactive, cutting edge educational experience in ADRD trials. We offer two tracks for those interested in advancing their careers in ADRD trials.

For more information about IMPACT-AD, please visit https://impact-ad.org.

Watch a message from Richard J. Hodes, MD, Director of the National Institute on Aging

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