M o s t I m p o r t a n t R e l e v a n t S c i e n t i f i c A c h i e v e m e n t s

Dr. Rundek’s submitting four elaborate and extensive NIH training grants to attempt to recruit the next generation of aging and cognition scientists

Dr. Rundek’s participation in the leadership of the Miami CTSI resubmission and successful renewal of the Miami Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) and Scientific Working Group on Aging and HIV.

Dr. Sun’s initiation and submission of the research grant on the relationship between music and autobiographic memory with the UM Frost School of Music to build a collaboration with aging research and the arts.

Dr. Galvin’s work that focused on applying a precision medicine-like, personalized approach to brain health and the prevention of cognitive decline His group has 28 grants (NIH, Alzheimer's Association, American Academy of Neurology/McKnight) currently totaling $155 Million To make this happen, they have established 56 unique research collaborations with academia, industry and community partners

In 2022 the EMBI stayed within budget. The endowment return revenue was slightly higher than the previous year.

The EMBI completed all programs and supported all researchers and staff as planned.

Dr. Rundek, our EMBI Scientific Director has an impressive portfolio of scientific collaborators in our department, institute and university, with other McKnight Brain Institutes as well as across the nation. This graph illustrates the extensive reach of her collaborations

C o n t i n u e d c o l l a b o r a t i o n w i t h o t h e r M c K n i g h t I n s t i t u t e s

NIA U19 Precision Aging Network (PAN) a partnership focused on sustaining healthy minds for life by discovering personalized solutions to improve brain health.

Collaborators: UM - Drs. Rundek, Levin; UA - Drs. Barnes, Ryan

Funding notice for the Florida Consortium to Reduce Misinformation and Exploitation in Alzheimer’s Disease was received in late 2021. It is funded by the Florida DOH Ed and Ethel Moore Alzheimer’s Disease Research Program. Study set-up including IRB approval, commenced this year. The consortium will utilize joint efforts to fight the burgeoning health crisis of misinformation and exploitation in Florida targeting older adults at risk for Alzheimer’s Disease The project builds on research showing parallel disease and fraud vulnerability trajectories rendering older individuals with cognitive impairments, in particular those from underserved racial/ethnic backgrounds, most vulnerable to deception Findings will be used to design interventions in concert with community partners

Collaborators: UM - Dr. Levin; UF - Dr. Ebner; UCF - Dr. Lighthall

OneFLorida ADRC REC Alzheimer’s Science Training to Advance ResearchSuccess (AlzSTARS) a program to train diverse,multidisciplinary early stage Investigators

Collaborators: UM - Drs. Rundek, Loewenstein; UF - Dr. Smith

Improving Age-Related Cognitive Decline with Exercise in Hypertensive Older Adults: A Pilot Study to Investigate A Retinal Microvascular Biomarker and the Role of IGF-1 MBRF Cognitive Aging and Memory Intervention Core Grant

Collaborators: UM - Drs. Jiang, Wang; UAB - Dr. Lazar

The MBRF Cognitive Aging and Memory Intervention Core awards grants to collaborations among McKnight Brain Institutes on a pilot-study that researches interventions to reduce age-related memory loss and cognitive decline. MBRF Cognitive Aging and Memory Intervention Core Grant Co-Chairs: UM - Dr. Levin; UAB - Dr. Lazar

The UF and UM MBIs collaborated on this research project that was presented at the 2022 Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) Region specific reduction of neurogranin immunostaining in the hippocampus of Alzheimer’s disease brains

Collaborators: UM - Drs. Vontell, Sun, Davis; UF - Dr. DeKosky

The McKnight Brain Aging Registry (MBAR) study, a collaboration between all four McKnight Institutes has a working group that met regularly in 2022 to review and approve ideas for manuscript submissions Some upcoming proposals are below and the published paper is mentioned on page 20.

“Surviving and Thriving: Evidence for Cortical GABA Stabilization in Cognitively-Intact Oldest-Old Adults” (led by UF)

“Associations Between Exercise Type, Fluid Intelligence, and Processing Speed in the Oldest-old” (led by UF)

“System and Network Segregation relates to Cognition in the Healthy Oldest-Old” (led by UAB)

Dr. Rundek worked with non-McKnight institutes in 2022 on important research collaborations and grant proposals. Here are four new collaborations made this year in which two include the acquisition of new grants and two submissions that are pending review.

Dr. Rundek submitted a grant to NIH with Columbia University (Dr Marco Di Tullio):“Subclinical cardiovascular disease and cognitive function” to evaluate the relationship between cardiovascular abnormalities at an early, subclinical stage and cognitive function, and their possible effects on cognitive decline over time The results of the study may open new horizons in the research on the heart and cognitive function, and possibly indicate new mechanisms of cognitive deterioration that could be targeted for preventive treatment (pending review).

Dr. Rundek submitted a grant with Columbia University (Drs. Moise Desvarieux and Linda Fried) and University of Chicago (Dr. Abibul Ahsan) called PANRECCA, with the overall goal to place the patients and communities impacted by SARS-COV2 at the center of the research in order to improve clinical outcomes and quality of life by 1) advancing understanding and management of post-acute manifestations of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC) in their layered complexity, 2) improving the trajectory these patients endure during their lives, and 3) determining the role of health systems, locality, diversity, socioeconomic factors, timing, and seasonality of infection, viral variants, and vaccination rates in this context (pending review)

This R01 grant (PI: Loewenstein, Co-PI: Rundek) Innovative Deep Phenotyping of African Americans (AAs) at Risk for Alzheimers disease was recently funded The project will deeply phenotype AAs using novel cognitive and biomarker assessments that consider the multiple comorbidities identified in this population The study leverages our vast expertise in neuroimaging and conducting home-based assessment to evaluate clinical and neuropsychological status with equipment that we place within the home

Dr. Rundek in collaboration with UCSD (PI: Dr. Hector Gonzalez; Co-PI: Rundek) just received funding for an NIA R01 titled Study of Latinos-Investigation of Neurocognitive Aging-Alzheimer's disease. The major goals of this project are to study the neurocognitive assessments, MRIs, and PETs among HCHS/SOL participants with cognitive decline and impairment and those meeting MCI and ADRD research criteria.