R35AG071916

Population Based Research for Alzheimer's Innovation (POP BRAIN) - Abstract

Dr. Yaffe's background and accomplishments make her ideally positioned for the proposed R35 Leadership Award in ADRD focusing on the AD/ADRD research implementation milestones for population studies, precision medicine, and health disparities.

Over the past 20 years, the PI and her team have led a research program in the epidemiology of ADRD. Within this broad theme, Dr. Yaffe has focused on studies aimed at identifying risk factors, particularly those that are modifiable (a key component of the exposome), for pre-clinical cognitive decline and ADRD. Her team has led seminal investigations on physical activity, sleep quality, cardiovascular risk factors, traumatic brain injury, and other key risk factors.

In order to achieve the next platform of research and training in line with the population studies milestone, the team will create an exciting multidisciplinary program entitled the UCSF Population Based Research for Alzheimer's Innovation or POP-BRAIN. Dr. Yaffe has assembled an outstanding multidisciplinary leadership group to advance ADRD population health along a highly innovative and impactful roadmap for discovery and the next generation of researchers' development.

The R35 mechanism is an ideal platform to enhance Dr. Yaffe's previous line of investigation in population health but also to pivot to greater emphasis on three themes that are nicely aligned with milestone 1.B:

1) A life-course approach to risk factors and novel analytic approaches to studying the life-course exposome,
2) Emphasis on diverse populations and how the exposome and life-course exposures may differ across groups (by race/ethnicity and sex) and provide insight into risk mechanisms, and
3) The relatively unexplored inter-relationship of the exposome, social determinants of health, and biological pathways of ADRD.

We will conduct these studies using established and novel analytic approaches for investigation in several cohorts that the investigators lead or have extensive experience with. Implementation of this innovative line of investigation will highlight new strategies for prevention, underscore the underpinnings for health disparities in the risk of ADRD, and offer new insights into the life-course etiology of ADRD.

In an equally important mission, the POP-BRAIN program will foster the careers of junior investigators from a variety of disciplines focused on population health for ADRD. This will involve new resources as well as leveraging and harmonizing existing but disparate programs at UCSF. The program will provide mentoring, didactics, research design and biostatistics guidance, pilot funding, and career development activities across several departments in a unified hub dedicated to population health.

Due to the caliber of her achievements and deep commitment to improving public health through rigorous scientific inquiry and developing the next generation of investigators, Dr. Yaffe and her POP-BRAIN multidisciplinary team of experts are in an ideal position to embrace a leadership award and deliver on the milestone in population health.

San Francisco Regents Of The University Of California

TO ENCOURAGE BIOMEDICAL, SOCIAL, AND BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH AND RESEARCH TRAINING DIRECTED TOWARD GREATER UNDERSTANDING OF THE AGING PROCESS AND THE DISEASES, SPECIAL PROBLEMS, AND NEEDS OF PEOPLE AS THEY AGE. THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON AGING HAS ESTABLISHED PROGRAMS TO PURSUE THESE GOALS. THE DIVISION OF AGING BIOLOGY EMPHASIZES UNDERSTANDING THE BASIC BIOLOGICAL PROCESSES OF AGING. THE DIVISION OF GERIATRICS AND CLINICAL GERONTOLOGY SUPPORTS RESEARCH TO IMPROVE THE ABILITIES OF HEALTH CARE PRACTITIONERS TO RESPOND TO THE DISEASES AND OTHER CLINICAL PROBLEMS OF OLDER PEOPLE. THE DIVISION OF BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL RESEARCH SUPPORTS RESEARCH THAT WILL LEAD TO GREATER UNDERSTANDING OF THE SOCIAL, CULTURAL, ECONOMIC AND PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS THAT AFFECT BOTH THE PROCESS OF GROWING OLD AND THE PLACE OF OLDER PEOPLE IN SOCIETY. THE DIVISION OF NEUROSCIENCE FOSTERS RESEARCH CONCERNED WITH THE AGE-RELATED CHANGES IN THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AS WELL AS THE RELATED SENSORY, PERCEPTUAL, AND COGNITIVE PROCESSES ASSOCIATED WITH AGING AND HAS A SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE. SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION RESEARCH (SBIR) PROGRAM: TO EXPAND AND IMPROVE THE SBIR PROGRAM, TO INCREASE PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIALIZATION OF INNOVATIONS DERIVED FROM FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, TO INCREASE SMALL BUSINESS PARTICIPATION IN FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, AND TO FOSTER AND ENCOURAGE PARTICIPATION OF SOCIALLY AND ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND WOMEN-OWNED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS IN TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION. SMALL BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER (STTR) PROGRAM: TO STIMULATE AND FOSTER SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION THROUGH COOPERATIVE RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT CARRIED OUT BETWEEN SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS, TO FOSTER TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER BETWEEN SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS, TO INCREASE PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIALIZATION OF INNOVATIONS DERIVED FROM FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, AND TO FOSTER AND ENCOURAGE PARTICIPATION OF SOCIALLY AND ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND WOMEN-OWNED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS IN TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION.

93.866 - Aging Research

National Institute on Aging (NIA) [HHS - NIH]

San Francisco, California 94143 United States

Single Zip Code

Leadership Award for Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias Research (R35 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) (RFA-AG-21-007)

Amendment Since initial award the End Date has been extended from 06/30/26 to 06/30/27 and the total obligations have increased 300% from $945,335 to $3,781,340.