The University of Pennsylvania’s Alzheimer’s Disease Core Center (ADCC) has refined its purpose and expanded its impact through the creation of a new research education core.
Core F focuses on preparing students and junior faculty to undertake research on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias across a wide range of approaches and disciplines.
The core offers training and mentorship opportunities for MD (and MD/PHD) fellows who have completed their residencies, PhD postdoctoral trainees, and junior faculty (MD, PhD, or MD/PhD).
There will also be highly active efforts to identify and include undergraduate and graduate students from underrepresented minority groups to participate in research experiences during the academic year and over summer sessions.
“A major issue with Alzheimer’s disease research and education is a shortage of trainees and faculty from underrepresented communities,” said Tigist Hailu, Penn Memory Center director for diversity in research and education. “We hope exposing students from diverse backgrounds in cognitive aging research will increase interest to this field.”
Some candidates will concentrate on combining basic and clinical research skills, while others may delve deeply into a single discipline such as biostatistics or bioinformatics.
The didactic presentations and data research meetings of Core F have already begun and will continue to grow. Penn Memory Center Co-Director Dr. David Wolk kicked off a series of monthly didactics meetings in October with a discussion of the criteria for mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease. At monthly data research meetings led by Dr. Dawn Mechanic-Hamilton, researchers working with PMC data present their progress to their peers.
Core F Co-Leader Dr. Jason Karlawish, who also leads the Penn Healthy Brain Research Center, oversees a scholars program and certificate program and teaches a class in Penn’s Master of Public Health program.
The Healthy Brain Scholars Program is available to undergraduate and graduate students with an interest in aging and cognition. The program will be overseen by a team of mentors and will culminate in a project ranging from a peer-reviewed publication to a community intervention plan.
The Certificate Program is available for qualified students who will enroll in courses focused on health and the psychosocial status of the aging population.
Karlawish’s elective, called “Public Health and the Aging Brain” will take an in-depth view of two relatively new public health issues, Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive aging. Through lectures, group discussions, guest experts and written assignments, students will develop a strong grasp of the issues surrounding Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive aging.
— by David Ney