Epidemiology of Aging Brain and Behavior

描述（由申请人提供）：流行病学本质上是一门多学科、转化的研究领域，研究人群中疾病的分布和决定因素。尽管它的患病率、发病率和危险因素的基本组成部分得到了广泛的承认，但它在临床和转化研究中的作用却没有得到很好的认识和利用。流行病学有助于指导临床试验设计，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，以便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。获得K07老龄化领域的领导奖后，她将在匹兹堡大学开展一个新的项目，研究大脑流行病学和老年行为。具体而言，提出了三组活动：(1)多层次课程

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.