Kaitlin B Casaletto
University of California-San Francisco, CA·Neuroscience
Damage linked to Alzheimer's disease starts building up in the brain in early adulthood, and by old age nearly every brain shows some of it. Yet most older adults never develop memory problems or dementia.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Medicine & Clinical Research
Psychology
- Topics
cognitive resilience
Alzheimer's disease
dementia
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Mar 2027
What they work on
- Identify networks of more than 150 synaptic proteins in autopsied brain tissue from 869 Rush Memory and Aging Project participants that relate to cognitive resilience, meaning better thinking than brain pathology would predict.
- Track how seven synaptic protein markers in cerebrospinal fluid change over time in 200 living UCSF older adults, and test how those changes relate to sustained cognitive resilience.
- Apply machine learning to actigraphy data, movement recorded by wearable monitors, to find the physical activity features most strongly linked to synaptic protein networks, synaptic marker changes and cognitive resilience.
More about the research
Finding out what protects these people, a quality called cognitive resilience, could point to new ways to prevent or slow Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD). This project tests two candidate protective factors: healthy synapses, the connections through which brain cells communicate, and physical activity.
Why it matters
Older adults at risk for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias could benefit if this work confirms that healthy synapses and physical activity help the brain withstand age-related damage. Pinpointing the synaptic proteins and activity patterns tied to resilience may identify concrete targets for treatments or exercise-based programs to prevent or slow dementia.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Aron S Buchman
Rush University, IL·Neuroscience
Identify which digital mobility metrics best predict Alzheimer's dementia by adding motor planning and attention measures and multi-day wrist-sensor data to motor testing in about 1,000 Rush Memory and Aging Project participants.
Beth Snitz
University of Pittsburgh, PA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Recruit 300 older adults and conduct yearly neuropsychological testing, neurological exams, and assessments of function, behavior and mood, to support studies of cognitive aging.
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.
The school
University of California-San Francisco: 89 labs on PI Pages, $2.1B a year on research, 164 research doctorates a year.
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