Population Neuroscience Core - South Texas Alzheimer's Disease Research Center

Background

The Population Neuroscience Core conducts research and services the Alzheimer’s research community. The core applies cutting-edge neuroscience and epidemiology research approaches to the understudied Mexican American population of South Texas, yielding new insights into disease biology, risk factors and health disparities in the burden of ADRD. The core will further generate a rich data source on multiple behavioral, psychosocial, lifestyle, genomic, imaging and fluid markers that will be an importantresource to the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center community.

Aims
1. Conduct population research focused on Mexican American Hispanics across South Texas, leveraging new and existing studies, and in collaboration with all cores of the center, to:
  - Monitor the magnitude and trends of health disparities in the prevalence and incidence of AD/ADRD;
  - Identify risk factors across the life course leading to disparities in AD/ADRD burden via multiple etiologies;
  - Assess the utility of diverse biomarkers derived from blood, CSF, MRI, PET, OCT/A and sensorimotor assessments for Alzheimer’s risk prediction in Mexican Americans Hispanics from South Texas; and
  - Evaluate, adapt and develop culturally and linguistically appropriate tools for assessing cognitive impairment and dementia among Mexican Americans.
2. To develop a sharing resource of population-based data focused on deeply phenotyped Mexican Americans in collaboration with the Data Management and Statistics Core, with the goals of reducing the gap of research disparities in Hispanic populations, enhancing the representation of Mexican Americans (and thereby improving generalizability) in AD/ADRD research and providing harmonized cognitively healthy controls to the enter and the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center community, by:
  - Developing protocols for data integration and harmonization of phenotypes across population-based studies and ADRCs;
  - Making available longitudinal data resources on resilience and risk factors in Hispanics and
  - Facilitating data-sharing agreements between the center’s PI’s and external investigators.
3. To provide training and consultation in population neuroscience in collaboration with the Research Education Core to:
  - Allow health care professionals from diverse backgrounds to develop skills in epidemiologic research methods and health disparities in AD/ADRD and
  - Implement innovative strategies that address the unique challenges of longitudinal dementia research by providing training and service locally and internationally.