Holly Elser
University of Pennsylvania, PA·Public Health & Epidemiology·Early-career
Breathing polluted air over many years is a known risk factor for dementia, but it is unclear how pollution harms the brain. Fine particles smaller than 2.5 microns (PM2.5) might promote inflammation and nerve cell damage.
- Fields
Public Health & Epidemiology
Neuroscience
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
air pollution
PM2.5
fine particulate matter
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Mar 2031
What they work on
- Estimate how the level and duration of long-term PM2.5 exposure affect blood biomarkers of Alzheimer's pathology and brain injury (Aβ42/40, pTau217, GFAP, NfL) in the Penn ADRC cohort, using g-computation, a causal inference method.
- Assess how long-term PM2.5 exposure relates to brain imaging markers of neurodegeneration and blood-vessel disease, including hippocampal volume, cortical thickness and white matter hyperintensity volume, using g-computation.
- Test whether blood and imaging biomarkers explain the link between long-term PM2.5 exposure and cognitive function, using a simulation-based mediation approach.
More about the research
They might speed the build-up of amyloid-beta plaques, the protein clumps typical of Alzheimer's disease (AD). They might also damage the brain's blood vessels, or do several of these at once. Knowing the biology matters because it shows which disease processes prevention efforts and treatments should target.
Why it matters
Air pollution is a common dementia risk factor that can be changed. Clarifying which biological pathways link long-term PM2.5 exposure to dementia could guide public health and clinical prevention efforts. Examples include pollution policies and interventions aimed at the specific disease processes involved, which could benefit older adults at risk of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jennifer Yokoyama
University of Pennsylvania, PA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Establish ASAC-specific diagnostic cutoffs for four plasma Alzheimer's biomarkers: Aβ42/40 and Tau-181 (markers of Alzheimer's protein pathology), neurofilament light (nerve fiber injury), and GFAP (astrocyte activation), using samples from the multi-center ACAD cohort.
Puja Agarwal
Rush University, IL·Public Health & Epidemiology
Examine whether long-term diet, nutrients and flavonoids relate to activated microglia, the brain's immune cells, in the hippocampus and mid-frontal cortex of autopsied brains from community cohorts of older adults.
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.
The school
University of Pennsylvania: 90 labs on PI Pages, $2.2B a year on research, 750 research doctorates a year.
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