By Leah Fein and Christine Willinger
Researchers at the Penn Memory Center and their collaborators will present their work at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC), held in Los Angeles from July 14-18.
AAIC is the world’s leading forum for the advancement of dementia science, and the PMC team will share a wide range of research.
PMC Co-Director David Wolk, MD, is one of nine invited plenary speakers at this year’s conference. He will be discussing new approaches to using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to identify brain changes in early stages of neurodegeneration.
Dr. Wolk is also one of the presenters of the Alzheimer’s Imaging Consortium, a day-long pre-conference program focusing on methods and uses for different types of brain imaging in dementia and normal aging. Laura Wisse, PhD and post-doctoral fellow at PMC, is delivering a plenary session at the Imaging Consortium to discuss lessons learned in neuroimaging for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.
Research from the Penn Program on Precision Medicine for the Brain (P3MB), led by PMC Co-Director Jason Karlawish, MD, will also be featured during the conference. Emily Largent, PhD, JD, RN, will give an oral presentation on the preliminary results of the Study of Knowledge and Reactions to APOE Testing (SOKRATES 2).
Along with Drs. Karlawish and Largent, P3MB team members Shana Stites, PsyD, Kristin Harkins, MPH, and Mara Abera will present research covering participants’ experiences of involvement in research and social stigma. More specifically, they are presenting research on the impact of genetic testing on participants’ daily lives and relationships, decisions to participate in an Alzheimer’s secondary prevention trial, effects of biomarker-based diagnosis and disease-modifying treatment on Alzheimer’s stigma, and the differences in reactions towards persons with cognitive impairment between caregivers and non-caregivers.
Joshua Grill, PhD, associate professor at UC Irvine and close collaborator with P3MB, will give an oral presentation explaining how the study partner requirement can be a barrier to participating in preclinical Alzheimer’s disease trials.
Jessica Langbaum, PhD, Principal Scientist at the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute in Arizona and P3MB partner, will give an oral presentation on Assessing Clinical Meaningfulness of Outcomes in the Alzheimer’s Prevention Initiative Generation Program.
Work from Dr. Wolk’s lab will also be highlighted in several oral presentations. He will describe patterns of amyloid—a key marker of Alzheimer’s disease—and other imaging features over time and how these may predict brain aging. Dr. Wisse will present her research on imaging markers for non-Alzheimer’s dementia.
Additionally, members from Dr. Wolk’s lab will display their data on the potential of different imaging biomarkers to predict specific changes in brain structure and function in multiple research posters over the course of the conference.
Previous PMC Scholar, Mohamad Habes, PhD, will give an oral presentation on White Matter Hyperintensities in Relation to Patterns of Accelerated Brain Aging. PMC collaborator Angela Bradbury, MD, will present her research on phone versus video-conference delivery of APOE genotype disclosure as well.
More information about the AAIC 2019, including the full program schedule and a list of abstract titles, is available here.