Researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine received a $24.5 million grant to continue a 12-year assessment of cognitive and brain aging and impairment among aging Latinos.
The grant was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute on Aging (NIA) to continue the Study of Latinos-Investigation of Neurocognitive Aging (SOL-INCA). The new funds aim to support the 12-year assessment of cognitive and brain aging and impairment among aging Latinos and update data previously collected.
The study will also examine the impact COVID-19 had on aging Latinos.
Co-principal investigators for the study are Hector González, PhD, professor of neurosciences at UC San Diego School of Medicine and co-director of the Latino Core of the UC San Diego Shiley-Marcos Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, and Charles DeCarli, MD, professor of neurology at UC Davis Health and director of the UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.
According to UC San Diego, the longitudinal study seeks telltale biomarkers of risk and resilience related to cognitive aging among Latinos. Researchers say the data collected from the study could “translate to real-world therapies, and potentially lessen the disease burden of dementia affecting Latinos”.
“Studying diverse Latino populations is a neglected field in neuroscience and cognitive brain aging,” González said. “We really don’t know the neurobiology of diverse Latinos as we should. This new study enables us to examine genetic, cardio-metabolic, and sociocultural contributions the aging brain.”
SOL-INCA AD is also collaborating with Wayne State University in Detroit, MI, to conduct the study’s analytics and biostatistics core study. Associate professor of gerontology healthcare sciences, Wassim Tarraf, Ph.D., is the study site's principal investigator.
