Joshua Grill
University of California-Irvine, CA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Alzheimer's disease and related dementias are a growing public health crisis, yet research on them is slowed by trouble enrolling enough participants. The people who do enroll often do not reflect those at highest risk, such as residents of disadvantaged neighborhoods, older Asian American and Hispanic adults, people with Down syndrome and people over 90.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Public Health & Epidemiology
Neuroscience
- Topics
Alzheimer's disease
dementia
recruitment registries
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Mar 2030
What they work on
- Compare traditional and modern strategies for recruiting people into Alzheimer's research registries, focusing on whether they enroll and retain participants from the most disadvantaged neighborhoods.
- Measure the bias in registry participants, who are self-selected convenience samples, by comparing them with other research populations, and develop statistical methods to address that bias.
- Follow diverse older adults, including Asian American and Hispanic participants, through the ADRC Clinical Core to capture early signs of dementia such as mild behavioral impairment.
- Study dementia in adults with Down syndrome and people aged 90 and older through dedicated center cores, and share donated brain tissue and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) with researchers worldwide.
More about the research
The two projects tackle this problem from different sides. One studies how research recruitment tools work and how biased they are. The other leads a research center built around including groups that are often left out.
Why it matters
Dementia studies that enroll slowly or draw on narrow samples delay answers and may not apply to everyone affected. Evidence on how to recruit and retain people from disadvantaged neighborhoods, and on how to correct registry bias, could help researchers build more representative studies faster. The center's data, brain tissue and stem cell resources support research that includes Asian American and Hispanic older adults, people with Down syndrome and the oldest-old, groups at higher risk who are often excluded.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
David Geldmacher
University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL·Neuroscience
Enroll and follow about 525 community volunteers each year, cognitively unimpaired, with mild cognitive impairment or with mild dementia, at least 40% Black or African American, using standard national tests plus social determinants of health, body composition and actigraphy measures.
Glenn Smith
University of Florida, FL·Medicine & Clinical Research
Complete 230 planned longitudinal follow-up visits with harmonized assessments across 1Florida ADRC sites and provide the data to the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center (NACC).
Jennifer Fairchild
Stanford University, CA·Education Research
Support two trainees per year through a formalized mentored training program in aging and Alzheimer's disease and related disorders at the Stanford Alzheimer's Disease Research Center.
The school
University of California-Irvine: 46 labs on PI Pages, $645M a year on research, 524 research doctorates a year.
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