Academic Leadership Career Award

The burden of ADRD remains high in the US and it is expected to increase with devastating impact on patients, families, and a large impact on health care related costs. Whereas there are promising developments in treatments, the effects are still limited. Thus, there is a critical need to understand the modifiable ADRD risk factors to develop preventive interventions. The Lancet commission reports that half of ADRD cases could be prevented with the elimination or control of 14 modifiable risk factors Research has also indicated that brain changes occur around 20 years before onset of disease, which highlights the opportunity for early intervention. Life-course approaches are therefore key but underutilized methods to understand best windows for risk factor modification. To address this gap, the central goal of this application is to create a program in life-course epidemiology of ADRD and aging, which will establish Albert Einstein College of Medicine as a leading institution in this area. Einstein has well-established ADRD research programs, but a life-course approach with emphasis in prevention is missing. This is of particular urgency given that the Bronx, where Einstein is located, is in the top 3 counties with the highest prevalence of ADRD in the US. The long-term plan of this award is to build a national resource in life-course epidemiology and train the next generation of ADRD researchers, with the ultimate goal of reducing the burden of ADRDs in the Bronx and elsewhere.