Understanding Alzheimer's disease biomarkers across diverse populations - Opportunities and Insights for novel prevision medicine approaches

Title : Understanding Alzheimer's disease biomarkers across diverse populations - Opportunities and Insights for novel prevision medicine approaches

Abstract:

The recent explosion of biomarker science in Alzheimer’s disease and brain aging has led to novel therapies finally reaching patients. However, the utility of these advancements to diverse populations remains largely unknown due to lack of inclusion of these populations in the science that drove these advancements. Dr. O’Bryant is a global expert in Alzheimer’s disease and brain aging among diverse communities, a renowned leader in AD biomarker science, and the principal investigator of the Health & Aging Brain Study – Health Disparities (HABS-HD). HABS-HD is the most comprehensive study of advanced brain biomarkers across diverse populations ever conducted all within a sociocultural context. In this talk, Dr. O’Bryant will present recent HABS-HD findings examining imaging (MRI and PET), plasma and genetic biomarker across diverse populations and discuss how these population differences offer novel opportunities for precision medicine approaches for treating and preventing Alzheimer’s disease. Lastly, he will provide actionable items for the audience to Own Your Brain Health.

Biography:

Dr. Sid O'Bryant is the principal investigator of the Health & Aging Brain Study – Health Disparities (HABS-HD), which is the most comprehensive study of Alzheimer’s disease among the three largest racial/ethnic groups in the U.S. ever conducted – African Americans, Hispanics, non-Hispanic whites. The goal of the HABS-HD program is to understand the life course factors, including biological, sociocultural, environmental, and behavioral, that impact risk for Alzheimer’s disease in late life. This work will ultimately lead to population-specific precision medicine approaches to treating and preventing Alzheimer’s disease (i.e., “treating your Alzheimer’s disease”). In addition to being a global leader in health disparities in cognitive aging, Dr. O’Bryant is a global expert in the use of blood-based biomarkers for the generation of a precision medicine approach to novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Dementia with Lewy Bodies and Alzheimer’s disease among adults with Down Syndrome.