Epidemiology of Aging Brain and Behavior

描述（由申请人提供）：流行病学是一个固有的多学科，翻译研究领域，检查疾病在人群中的分布和决定因素。尽管其患病率、发病率和风险因素的基本组成部分得到了广泛的认可，但其在临床和转化研究中的作用却没有得到很好的理解和利用。流行病学可以帮助指导临床试验设计，验证诊断标准和生物标志物，在人群水平上识别潜在疾病机制的信号，以在临床和实验室水平上进行研究。候选人是一位经验丰富的精神病学家和神经流行病学家。这个K 07老龄化领导奖将使她能够在匹兹堡大学开发一个新的计划，在大脑和行为的流行病学老化。具体而言，提出了三组活动：（1）多层次课程 在老龄化脑行为流行病学，有几个类和研讨会，针对临床居民和研究员，心理学实习生，博士后学者，以及在神经病学，精神病学，老年医学，心理学和流行病学教师，建立和扩大目前可用的教育产品。 (2)一个关于癌症和神经退行性变的多学科研究论坛，基于神经退行性变和某些癌症之间的反向关系的有趣的流行病学证据。 该论坛将汇集来自临床，基础和转化神经科学，神经流行病学家，肿瘤学家，癌症流行病学家，遗传学家，免疫学家和相关学科的研究人员，以审查和讨论新兴科学，产生创新假设，导致试点研究和合作研究。 (3)一系列的研究实践提供指导的研究机会，以早期阶段的调查，包括（i）在一个队列的中年妇女谁已被充分表征为酒精和大麻的使用，并跟踪了22年的认知障碍的新研究;（ii）从候选人的认知障碍和痴呆症的四个大型流行病学研究的数据的二次分析;（iii）癌症和神经退化问题论坛的试点研究。该计划还将组织会议，广泛传播研究成果和课程努力。因此，它将引入教育增强和催化创新的多学科转化研究与人口的角度。它将 不仅产生新的科学，而且导致发展多学科的研究人员，他们将掌握关键的流行病学原理和方法，为他们对衰老大脑疾病的研究提供信息。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Epidemiology is an inherently multidisciplinary, translational field of study that examines the distribution and determinants of disease in the population. Although its basic building blocks of prevalence, incidence, and risk factors are widely acknowledged, its role in clinical and translational research is less well appreciated and utilized. Epidemiology can contribute to guiding clinical trials design, to validating diagnostic criteria and biomarkers, to identifying - at the population level - signals of potential disease mechanisms to be investigated at the clinical and laboratory levels. The Candidate is a seasoned psychiatrist and neuroepidemiologist. This K07 Leadership Award in Aging will allow her to develop a new program at the University of Pittsburgh in the epidemiology of brain and behavior in aging. Specifically, 3 groups of activities are proposed: (1) A multi-level curriculum in Aging Brain-Behavior Epidemiology, with several classes and seminars targeting clinical residents and fellows, psychology interns, postdoctoral scholars, and faculty in neurology, psychiatry, geriatric medicine, psychology, and epidemiology, building on and expanding currently available educational offerings. (2) A multidisciplinary Research Forum on Cancer and Neurodegeneration, based on intriguing epidemiologic evidence of an inverse relationship between neurodegeneration and certain cancers. This Forum will bring together researchers from clinical, basic, and translational neuroscience, neuroepidemiologists, oncologists, cancer epidemiologists, geneticists, immunologists, and related disciplines, to review and discuss emerging science, generate innovative hypotheses leading to pilot studies, and collaborative research. (3) A range of Research Practice offering mentored research opportunities to early stage investigators, including (i) a novel study of cognitive impairment in a cohort of middle-aged women who have been well-characterized for alcohol and cannabis use and followed for 22 years; (ii) secondary analyses of data from the Candidate's four large epidemiologic studies of cognitive impairment and dementia; (iii) pilot studies derived from the forum on cancer and neurodegeneration. This program will also organize conferences to broadly disseminate results of research as well as curricular efforts. Thus, it will introduce educational enhancements and catalyze innovative multidisciplinary translational research with a population perspective. It will not only generate new science but result in the development of a multidisciplinary cadre of investigators who will be equipped with a sound grasp of critical epidemiological principles and methods to inform their research into brain disorders of aging.