Interstellar Initiative Outstanding Presentation Award
Mount Sinai Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center Pilot Grant Award
Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Pilot Grant Award
Current Studies
Within Mount Sinai:
ALZ-NAN-22-928181 Biomarkers of COVID-19 Induced Cognitive Loss in Diverse Older Population
09/01/2022-08/31/2025 Cognitive loss following COVID-19 infection is being increasingly recognized as an acute and possibly also long-term sequela of the disease. While older minorities are at-risk for severe COVID symptoms and poor outcomes, there are very few empirical investigations into the effects of COVID-19 on their brain function. The Mount Sinai COVID-19 Biobank collected blood samples from nearly 800 COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized during the initial surge of COVID-19. 30% of the cohort are older adults. 57% of those are older minorities, which provides an opportunity to study biomarkers of cognitive outcome in diverse older COVID patients. This study will recruit 100 racially/ethnically diverse older adults from the existing Biobank and the Mount Sinai Data Warehouse cohorts into the study for cognitive characterization and examine the cognitive correlates of COVID-19.
R21AG077649 Identifying Risk Factors of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias in Older Chinese Immigrants
05/01/2022 – 04/30/2025 Like the general older population, older Chinese immigrants are at high risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias due to increasing age. The relationship between immigration and cognition has not been well established. Understanding such relationships has potential implications for clinical practice and global health policies.
R61AG083582 A Pilot of Memory Support System for Older Chinese Americans with Mild Cognitive Impairment
09/15/2023 – 05/31/2025 Despite the rapidly growing population of older Chinese Americans, their participation in clinical trials for Alzheimer’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) remains historically low due to a lack of culturally and linguistically appropriate study materials and assessment tools. The Memory Support System (MSS) from the Healthy Action to Benefit Independence & Thinking® (HABIT) Program is a promising non-pharmacological intervention for individuals with mild cognitive impairment, but the system was primarily developed and used on non-Hispanic White, English-speaking adults. Translation and adaptation of the MSS materials and assessment tools from English into Chinese, the third most spoken language in the US, will help create clinical trial opportunities for older Chinese Americans and collect the pilot data needed to conduct a larger non-pharmacological intervention targeting early symptoms of AD/ADRD. This study aims to extend the Memory Support System (MSS) in the Healthy Action to Benefit Independence & Thinking(R) (HABIT) Program to Chinese American Older Adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
UH2/UH3AG083258 Research Infrastructure for the Study of Alzheimer’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease-related Dementias in Older Asian Americans
09/15/2023 – 05/31/2025 Despite the rapidly growing population of older Asian Americans, their participation in clinical research for Alzheimer’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) remains historically low – masking health disparities in this minority group. Social determinants of health (SDOH) are the conditions in the environment that affect an individual’s overall health and quality of life. This proposed study will investigate mechanisms involved in the relationship between SDOH and AD/ADRD outcomes, as well as identify vascular risk factors and novel biomarkers for predicting AD/ADRD using modern systems biology and machine learning based approaches.
Multi-site Studies:
U19AG079774 Asian Cohort for Alzheimer’s Disease (ACAD)
07/01/2023 – 06/30/2028 The goal of the ACAD study is to compile a robust sample size of Asian American and Canadian subjects for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) research. Asians are the fastest growing populations in the US and Canada, yet they are underrepresented in AD research. ACAD aims to address this gap by starting with a cohort of individuals of Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese ancestry, and later extending to other major Asian populations in both countries. Mount Sinai will serve as one of the participating and recruiting sites in the New York Metropolitan area. Research activities will be conducted at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS).
R01AG083840 Chinese Language Versions of the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center’s Uniform Data Set Version 4: A Linguistic and Cultural Adaptation Study
08/15/2023-4/30/2028 The risk of assigning an inaccurate diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) is high among older Chinese Americans due to language barriers and cultural differences. Although the English and Spanish versions of the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center’s Uniform Data Set assessment battery have been successfully created and utilized for AD/ADRD research, the battery is not available in Chinese languages, despite being the third most spoken languages in the US. The availability of appropriate cultural/linguistic test batteries and corresponding normative data will yield more accurate interpretation and diagnosis of AD/ADRD for older Chinese Americans, which can lead to improved health equity and reduced disease/treatment disparities in this underrepresented group. This novel project will provide linguistically and culturally appropriate assessment tools for future cross-geographic studies that include older Chinese Americans and add value to the NACC research database. The study results will also provide normative data for the detection and diagnosis of cognitive deficits in this underserved population, which is currently nonexistent.
R01AG058969 Subclinical Vascular Contributions to Alzheimer’s Disease: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) Multisite Study of AD
12/01/2019 – 05/31/2024 & 06/01/2024 – 05/31/2029 MESA-MIND is focused on understanding how subclinical vascular disease may increase the risk for dementia by creating vascular pathology in brain. This is especially important for racial/ethnic minority groups in the United States who have a higher risk of developing both cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s disease. MESA-MIND will collect detailed cognitive testing and brain imaging from MESA participants and will leverage the detailed vascular phenotypes collected by MESA to determine how subclinical vascular disease may contributes to brain function and the risk for Alzheimer’s disease later in life.
R01AG080469 The Impact of Bilingualism on Cognitive Reserve/Resilience Using Socio-demographically and Linguistically Diverse Populations
12/01/2022 – 01/30/2027 The overarching goal of this project is to delineate the impact of bilingualism on cognitive reserve/resilience using socio-demographically and linguistically diverse populations, specifically the Chinese Americans, Mexican Americans and Indian populations.
Completed Studies:
U19AG068753 Precision Monitoring and Assessment in the Framingham Study: Cognitive, MRI, Genetic and Biomarker Precursors of AD & Dementia
09/01/2021 – 06/30/2024 The Clinical Core seeks to build upon the extraordinary data resource that has been acquired since 1948 across the six Framingham Heart Study cohorts. Importantly, in terms of scientific premise, is that many vascular/metabolic, lifestyle, plasma and genetic measures have been collected longitudinally for up to nearly 7 decades that include the periods of early to mid-life and can be leveraged to identify new and expand on known risk factors and biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and cognitive resiliency, some of which will be pursued through the three projects proposed within this U19 application. An administrative supplement was funded to translate and adopt a battery of cognitive tests to evaluate older Chinese immigrants in the Framingham Study.
R56AG047992 Long-Term Nicotine Treatment of Mild Cognitive Impairment
06/01/2016 – 05/31/2022 The purpose of this 12-month study is to determine whether nicotine, administered in the form of nicotine patches, can improve symptoms of memory loss in some people experiencing mild memory problems (referred to in this study as “mild cognitive impairment” or MCI).
