Research Fellowship for Equity in Alzheimer's Disease and Brain Health

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ABSTRACT The proposed work will fund two postdoctoral scholars from varied disciplines each for 3 years to focus on equity in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. This application will create a training program for early career researchers from the United States (U.S.) who are passionate about brain health for underserved communities. We will leverage two outstanding programs at the University of California at San Francisco’s (UCSF). The Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI) led by MPD/PI, Victor Valcour, which leads a 12-month international training program in equity and dementia with a particular focus on low and middle income countries. This 12-month course enrolls international and inter-professional trainees and provides an equity-based curriculum in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, leadership training, career mentoring and a robust alumni experience to advance their careers. The UCSF Memory and Aging Center (MAC), led by MPD/PI, Bruce Miller, has a remarkable record in training successful academic behavioral neurologists with a T32-funded behavioral neurology training program (BNTP). This remarkable environment provides outstanding research opportunities for trainees supported by the current T32 application to research Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Although GBHI does not exclude applications from the US and has a track-record of successful engagement of U.S. citizens, the one-year curriculum is insufficient for early-stage trainees (e.g. postdocs) who typically require 2-3 years of support in order to successfully transition to academic posts. The two-year BNTP fellowship accepts only doctors, is neurologically-focused and does not specifically focus upon brain health equity. This T32 will fill this gap in both programs by intentionally targeting multi-disciplinary early career patient-oriented researchers and by providing 3-years of support. These T32 trainees will leverage the most robust aspects of coursework and environment provided by the curriculum at GBHI and the MAC while also working with faculty across multiple departments at UCSF as they advance trajectories toward independence. Our application includes substantial novelty in that trainees will be working with other international trainees who are in later stages of their career and will serve as experts for work in diverse immigrant communities in the U.S. Our long-term goal is to contribute to the pool of academic research working together to better understand disparities in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias and create culturally appropriate solutions to optimize diagnosis and care for underserved groups.