REDUCE SUFFERING AND MAXIMIZE HUMAN POTENTIAL THROUGH BETTER BRAIN HEALTH FOR ALL
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Dear McCance community,
At this time of year, like many people, we are reflecting on how fortunate we are. We are truly grateful for our rapidly growing community of friends, supporters, faculty, fellows, students, staff, and collaborators, and your passion for our shared mission of better brain health for all. Thank you!
This issue of our newsletter features some of our most exciting work, including our plan for clinical trials to test novel combinations of FDA-approved drugs and natural products, some of the latest results demonstrating the effectiveness of sleep as an indicator of brain health, and broadening visibility for the McCance Brain Care ScoreTM in a Lancet Op Ed entitled "Brain health begins with brain care." We also feature our Medical Director's visit to Shiprock, New Mexico, to work with Indian Health Service, fulfilling a key part of our mission to reach broader communities and underserved populations.
Our best to all of you at Thanksgiving,
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Jonathan Rosand, MD, MSc, Managing Co-Director
Rudy Tanzi, PhD, Co-Director
Greg Fricchione, MD, Co-Director
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McCANCE CENTER CLINICAL TRIALS |
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McCance Initiatives, Faculty, Clinicians Making an Impact |
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Brain Health Begins with Brain Care
"The brain health crisis demands a rapid response. In the USA alone, one in ten people aged 65 years and older has dementia, a stroke-related death occurs every four minutes, and 21 million adults had at least one major depressive episode in 2020." McCance faculty discuss brain care in this month's Lancet Op Ed.
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Bringing Brain Health Support to Navajo Nation
This fall, McCance Center’s Brain Health Clinic Director Dr. Zeina Chemali volunteered with the Mass General Outreach Program with Indian Health Service to provide specialty brain health consultations to the Neurology and Psychiatry units at the Northern Navajo Medical Center (NNMC) in Shiprock, New Mexico.
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Study Detects Neurodegenerative Disease from Sleep Data
A recent McCance Center study to be published in an upcoming issue of Sleep detects signs of neurodegenerative disease from brain activity measured during sleep, providing a pathway to assessing risk of dementia much earlier, and creating a window of opportunity for early interventions.
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Familial Risk, Menopause Spur McCance Patient to Action
A McCance Clinic for Brain Health patient tells the story of what prompted her to take steps now, as she approaches menopause at 50 years old, to address all the dimensions of the McCance Brain Care ScoreTM, particularly in light of her genetic risk of Alzheimer's Disease.
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Driving the Conversation on Brain Health |
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Nutrition: State of science and dementia prevention
Observational studies suggest that nutritional factors have a potential cognitive benefit. McCance Clinical Trials Director Dr. Gene Bowman and others explore this topic.
Read more
www.thelancet.com
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Ending Alzheimer's Disease by Preserving Brain Health
Rudy Tanzi, PhD, recently spoke on Alzheimer's disease and his research on strategies for prevention, with a focus on modifiable risks.
Read more
www.youtube.com
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Alzheimer's-defying brain offers clues to treatment
Aliria Rosa Piedrahita de Villegas should have developed Alzheimer's disease in her 40s and died from the disease in her 60s because of a rare genetic mutation.
Read more
news.harvard.edu
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News from our Network: Perspective on Mentoring, the Next Generation |
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Dr. Wrann on Her Own Career Path, Vision and Mentoring
Ever wondered how top researchers got where they are? What is the impact of mentoring on fostering the next generation in research? The McCance Center's Dr. Christiane Wrann, newly promoted to Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, shared her thoughts in this issue of "Career Pathways," in Nature Metabolism.
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New Fellow Dr. Singh Reflects on Mindfulness
This month we welcomed Dr. Sanjula Singh, who will be working with Dr. Jonathan Rosand. In this interview she reflects on her recent travels with her father to Ladakh, India, and the importance of mindfulness to brain health. Dr. Singh also worked to publish the "Brain health begins with brain care" Op Ed earlier this month in Lancet, along with other members of the team.
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Dr. Narasimhalu Joins MGH Neurology from Singapore
Dr. Kaavya Narasimhalu, Consultant, Department of Neurology--National Neuroscience Institute at Singapore General Hospital, is here for a 12-month preceptorship funded by a fellowship from SingHealth HMDP. She will be working under Dr. Jonathan Rosand to evaluate and perform genetic and other analyses in adult neurology patients and pharmacogenomics.
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Every two weeks the McCance Center hosts faculty seminars featuring the latest research on brain health from globally recognized experts.
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Erin Dunn, ScD, MPH Monday, December 5, 11:00 AM ET
Dr. Dunn, ScD, MPH, McCance Center Faculty and SPARC funding awardee, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Associate Investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital, is a social and psychiatric epidemiologist with expertise in genetics and epigenetics. Her research laboratory uses interdisciplinary approaches to better understand the social and biological factors that influence the etiology of depression among women, children, and adolescents. The goal of her work is to identify the causal mechanisms underlying risk for depression, translate that knowledge to population-based strategies for prevention, and target those strategies to “sensitive periods” in development.
Link to a March 2022 Boston Globe article featuring Dr. Dunn's research on baby teeth as an indicator of brain health.
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Follow us on social media and visit our website to get the latest news
on our clinical programs and research initiatives.
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If you would like to learn more about how you can support
the McCance Center for Brain Health, please contact Bridget Flynn
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