Gladys Maestre
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, TX·Public Health & Epidemiology
Alzheimer's disease (AD) affects a larger share of Hispanic Americans than white Americans, and often at younger ages. The reasons are unknown, partly because Hispanics are underrepresented in AD research.
- Fields
Public Health & Epidemiology
Neuroscience
Genetics
- Topics
Alzheimer's disease
dementia
cognitive decline
- Grants
- 1 known grant, last ended Aug 2026
What they work on
- Test whether familism, strong family ties and support, protects Mexican Americans in the San Antonio Mexican American Family Study from Alzheimer's-like cognitive decline compared with other forms of decline.
- Analyze how the social and built environments of 17 neighborhoods relate to Alzheimer's-like cognitive trajectories, using online street imagery analysis.
- Detect neighborhood and family signals in metabolomic, lipidomic, epigenomic and transcriptomic biomarkers that correlate with risk of Alzheimer's-like cognitive decline.
- Translate findings into a strategic communication toolkit and a stakeholder forum that guide neighborhood designers and city planners in reducing cognitive decline risk.
More about the research
Neighborhoods, "el barrio," matter greatly in Hispanic communities, and earlier studies tie neighborhood features to brain health. This project asks whether neighborhoods shape the risk of Alzheimer's-like cognitive decline in Mexican Americans, and through which pathways.
Why it matters
Mexican Americans and other Hispanic adults, the fastest-growing group of older adults in the U.S., face higher Alzheimer's risk for unknown reasons. Identifying neighborhood and family factors linked to cognitive decline could give city planners, neighborhood designers and policymakers evidence to create environments that lower that risk. Biological markers tied to these factors may also clarify how the risk develops.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Pablo Martinez Amezcua
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Public Health & Epidemiology
Examine whether the association between hearing loss and cognitive decline over about six years in Hispanic adults differs by language acculturation, using HCHS/SOL data.
Kathryn Conlon
University of California-Davis, CA·Public Health & Epidemiology
Test whether lifetime exposure to extreme weather events (extreme heat, drought, wildfire) is linked to brain imaging markers, cognitive decline, and dementia, using geocoded residential histories of 3,379 diverse Northern California older adults.
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).
The school
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley: 2 labs on PI Pages, $91M a year on research, 50 research doctorates a year.
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