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MBI Frailty Project Drs. Levin and McInerney oversee the Frailty project, Stacy Merritt coordinates the database logistics and Dr. Seixas-Saporta analyzes the aging brain MRI images. Data collected includes demographic, medical/clinical, neuropsychological, neuroimaging, psychosocial and frailty data. Dr. Levin and team successfully launched their virtual neuropsychological testing, which is the data source for the project. There are 517 subject records in the study. With all working from home, this year’s data has not been entered. Data analysis has continued on MRI brain image analyses. -
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Over the past year, all high quality structural images (n=128) have been processed. Dr. Seixas-Saporta, our MBI fellow has been exploring volumetric differences in hippocampal volumes as well as in other structures early affected in those at AD risk. She is also exploring the brain aging process in normal aging and in pathological conditions through the study of the cerebellum. She focuses on this brain structure because the cortical contributions to age-related declines in motor and cognitive performance are well-known but potential contributions of the cerebellum are less clear. The diverse functions of the cerebellum go beyond motor function and include emotion, language and cognition which make it an important structure to investigate in aging. Dr. Seixas-Saporta is currently working on the analysis of the data and plans to publish the results in 2021.
Dr. Levin is Co-Investigator on the “Role of Gut Microbiota on the Brain Metabolism, Cognition, Immune Function and Inflammation in Alzheimer’s disease: Novel Biomarkers and Understanding Mechanisms” research project funded by FL DOH. The goal of this study is to test the associations between dysbiosis of the gut microbiome and intestinal permeability and microbial translocation markers with brain GABA, brain inflammation markers, peripheral amyloids and lipopolysaccharides, peripheral inflammation markers and cognitive function in patients at the early stage of cognitive impairment and agematched healthy controls. Dr. Levin’s Team
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