MESSAGE FROM LEADERSHIP
Dear McCance community,

At the end of last year, we recognized an important milestone: five years since our founding in 2018. Looking back, while we were full of hope and ambition in 2018, we could hardly have imagined the scope of what we have accomplished so far, and the excitement with which we approach the new year in 2023. Here's a quick snapshot of where we are today:
As we focus on the road ahead, we will be sharing news with you more frequently, in order to keep pace with new developments. We continue to be deeply grateful for your many contributions to our mission.

Happy New Year,

Jonathan Rosand, MD, MSc, Managing Co-Director
Rudy Tanzi, PhD, Co-Director
Greg Fricchione, MD, Co-Director
McCance Initiatives, Faculty, Clinicians Making an Impact
Brain Care Score Implementation Continues
The Brain Care Score makes it’s branding debut in clinic! Last month the tool-kit launched within Psychiatry, the Neurology Resident program, and the Neurocritical ICU. We look forward to learning how both patients and providers engage with these tools to encourage and improve brain care.
ADDF-Harrington Award to Dr. Wrann
The Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) and Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals in Cleveland have granted an ADDF-Harrington Scholar Award to McCance faculty and SPARC awardee Christiane Wrann, PhD, DVM, who will receive funding and drug development guidance to help advance her research aimed at using the novel exercise hormone irisin to treat Alzheimer's Disease.
"Your Latest Buzzword is Brain Age"
Check out the latest issue of Healthier Sleep, which features a short article targeting a lay audience from the McCance Center's Dr. Haoqi Sun, explaining how electrical brain waves from sleep can help to determine "brain age," as an indicator of brain health.
The Landscape of Alzheimer's Clinical Trials
Mark your calendar. On Friday, January 20, McCance Center faculty Dr. Steven Arnold will speak on "Making a Difference Through Research," in a program offered by the Massachusetts Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (MADRC). His remarks will focus on what we're learning from research studies under way, including a research subject's point of view. Visit the MADRC website to learn more and sign up.
Driving the Conversation on Brain Health: McCance Center in the Media
How to Make Education an Investment After College

"To stay mentally sharp as you age, make sure to continue dedicated learning well beyond your college years." Rudy Tanzi, PhD, is quoted here, talking about this and other strategies to "ward off dementia."

Read more
www.wsj.com
The "beginning of the end of Alzheimer's"?

In 1906, a doctor in Germany, Dr Alois Alzheimer, was the first to describe "a peculiar disease," characterized by severe memory loss and changes to the brain. This article asks, "Does new research really mean 'the beginning of the end'?"

Read more
inews.co.uk
UPCOMING EVENTS
McCance Center for Brain Health Seminar Series - Ongoing and open to the public
Every two weeks the McCance Center hosts faculty seminars featuring the latest research on brain health from globally recognized experts. Guests are welcome to listen in on the McCance Center for Brain Health Seminar Series. Email [email protected] to receive lecture invites. Watch previous lectures on video here.
Vladimir Hachinski, CM, MD, DSc, FRCPC, FCAHS, FAHA, FAAN, FRSC
Monday, Jan 23, 11:00 AM ET
Dr. Hachinski is Professor of Neurology and Epidemiology in the Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences at Western University. He founded, with John W. Norris, the world’s first successful acute stroke unit that has become the standard of care, and with David Cechetto, he discovered the key role of the insula of the brain in mediating sudden death. He introduced the concepts of multi-infarct dementia, leukoaraiosis, and vascular cognitive impairment. He devised the Hachinski ischemic score (over 4000 citations) that remains the standard for identifying the vascular (treatable) component of cognitive impairment.
Edith Wakida, BIFA, MA, MRA, PhD, and Celestino Obua, PhD
Monday, February 6, 11:00 AM ET
Dr. Wakida is the founding Head of the Office of Research Administration and pioneer Research Administrator in the Faculty of Medicine at Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) in Uganda. For her PhD program, Dr. Wakida developed an intervention to ‘Enhance the Capacity for Providers in Mental Health Integration, ECaP-MHI.’ During the post-doctoral fellowship, Dr. Wakida will adapt the training component of the ECaP-MHI to an instructional design and make the learning materials available to the PHC providers under the supervision of the district health teams. The adapted ECaP-MHI will be pilot tested for acceptability, adoption, appropriateness, feasibility of the content, and affective response to the material and routine activities.
 
Dr. Obua is the Vice Chancellor of Mbarara University of Science and Technology, a Professor of Pharmacology and Therapeutics with a PhD in Pharmacology, and a Fellow of the Uganda National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Obua is the Contact MPI of the “Mbarara University Data Science Research Hub (MUDSReH),” a research consortium on Data Science-Initiative Africa (DS-I Africa) running from 2021 – 2026. This grant focuses on harnessing medical images for Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence to enhance the diagnosis and management of diseases to improve health in Africa. He is also the contact MPI of the “Building capacity for Implementation Science research in Non-Communicable Diseases (BImS-NCDs),” a capacity grant to train PhDs in NCDs utilizing implementation Science methodologies running from 2022 – 2027.
Follow us on social media and visit our website to get the latest news
on our clinical programs and research initiatives.
If you would like to learn more about how you can support
the McCance Center for Brain Health, please contact Bridget Flynn
at [email protected], 508-961-8093, or link here.