MAXIMIZING HUMAN POTENTIAL THROUGH BETTER BRAIN HEALTH.
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Dear McCance community,
We’ve had a very exciting spring, with new discoveries, and significant steps forward on all of our programs and initiatives. We continue to work to maximize human potential through better brain health.
Regards,
Jonathan Rosand, MD, MSc, Managing Co-director
Rudy Tanzi, PhD, Co-director
Greg Fricchione, MD, Co-director
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Study solves mystery of how the root of Alzheimer’s forms in the brain’s nerve cells
Our researchers have discovered how amyloid beta—the neurotoxin believed to be at the root of Alzheimer’s disease—forms in axons and related structures that connect neurons in the brain, where it causes the most damage. The findings could serve as a guidepost for developing new therapies to prevent the onset of the disease.
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Blood pressure control after stroke predicts long-term outcomes, based on new McCance research
A key to protecting our brains as we age is controlling our blood pressure. The impact of blood pressure on brain health after stroke is even more potent. In May, the McCance Center member Dr. Alessandro Biffi and his team within the Center’s Cerebrovascular Health Research Program published research that clearly demonstrates that hemorrhagic stroke survivors who did not control their blood pressure within three months after their stroke were unlikely to ever get it under control. More broadly, with a focus on blood pressure as the leading risk factor for brain health, the Cerebrovascular Health Research Program is focused on pioneering new treatments and approaches to stop blood vessel degeneration long before it can have an impact on our brains. Review Dr. Biffi’s latest findings on blood pressure control after stroke here.
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McCance team has assembled a national community around the McCance Brain Care Score® to take the next concrete steps toward implementation
Emanating from our partnership with faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s McKnight Brain Institute, we are beginning a phased-in process of implementing brain health into targeted venues in the UAB Family and Community Medicine system. UAB has assembled a brain health team with expertise in risk factor targets, mental health, community relations, physical activity, technology and cognition. A brain health advocate will be trained to work with individual patients and family members and report to physicians with critical observations when needed. The team has begun to fashion an implementation strategy encompassing culturally appropriate messaging.
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COLLABORATIONS AND CONVENINGS |
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The bi-weekly McCance Center for Brain Health Seminar Series brings faculty members and their labs together to present on and discuss the development of brain health indicators and interventions, as well as efforts to integrate brain health assessments into primary care. |
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UPCOMING SPEAKERS:
7/26/21
Steve Arnold, MD, Department of Neurology, Mass General, McCance Center Faculty Member
Dr. Arnold is leader of the integrated brain center, and has conducted longstanding research on neurodegenerative disease pathology, molecular biomarkers and therapeutics for cognitive decline and psychiatric syndromes in late life and has led broad clinical and translational research programs. Most significantly for the McCance Center, he is an innovator in clinical trial designs and overseeing the McCance Center clinical trials for new interventions.
8/9/21
Sonia Vallabh, PhD, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and McCance Center Faculty Member
Eric Minikel, PhD, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and McCance Center Faculty Member
Drs. Vallabh and Minikel are developing the very first targeted treatment for primary prevention of inherited causes of dementia. Their personal journey as a couple, after Dr. Vallabh’s mother was diagnosed with prion disease at age 51, drives their shared passion, as described in this Wired essay.
8/23/21
Olivia Okereke, MD, MS, Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Dr. Okereke focuses her research on finding modifiable health and lifestyle factors that translate to prevention of cognitive decline and depression in late-life, applying methods that have been successful in identifying prevention strategies for cardiovascular disease, but have been largely absent from Alzheimer’s disease and depression studies.
9/20/21
Ronald Lazar, PhD, McKnight Brain Institute, Department of Neurology, University of Alabama at Birmingham
As lead author of the “Primary Care Agenda for Brain Health” paper from the American Heart Association earlier this year, Dr. Lazar has broad interests in aging and vascular disease, with emphases on reversible causes of cognitive decline, risk-factor modification to promote cognitive resiliency, and recovery after stroke. Most significantly to the McCance Center, Dr. Lazar is co-author with Dr. Rosand and other McCance faculty on the upcoming REGARDS results paper which demonstrates effectiveness of the McCance Brain Care Score.
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For more on these events please visit our event page.
For more information on our team or to contact us please visit our website.
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